ANKARA, Turkey — Unable to stop the economic hemorrhage sparked by the flight of foreign investors and money, Turkey’s government has tightened the country’s 26-year liberal foreign exchange rules. Travelers exiting Turkey are now required to make declarations of cash and credit cards or face sanctions on charges of money laundering and smuggling.

The flight of foreign investors and foreign capital from Turkey gathered speed in late 2014. Last year, it accelerated further amid increasing economic and political risks and controversial government moves, including the seizure of private companies, among them media outlets, through an increasingly politicized judiciary and the use of supervisory bodies as a tool to bully business people. Investor confidence was further shaken by a protracted election process — an inconclusive vote July 7 followed by snap polls Nov. 1 — coupled with the resumption of armed conflict with Kurdish militants, deadly terrorist attacks and heavy-handed security crackdowns.

After the Justice and Development Party (AKP) reclaimed its parliamentary majority Nov. 1, optimists argued that the continuation of one-party government, as opposed to the coalition the June 7 result had dictated, would restore both political and economic stability. This, however, did not happen. The Istanbul Stock Exchange saw net foreign sales of a staggering $1.13 billion in November and $640 million in December. In the last week of December alone, foreign investors sold $195 million worth of stock shares and Turkish treasury bonds. The Fed’s rate hike also stoked the flight of and demand for foreign currency, while further weakening the Turkish lira.

After June 7, ordinary Turkish citizens, too, began to increasingly shift from the lira to the dollar, seeking to protect themselves against the depreciation of the national currency.