Erdogan's money troubles

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call for citizens to convert their dollars to prop up the sagging Turkish lira continues to elicit colorful responses. Barbers promised free haircuts to customers who could prove that they had exchanged their dollars, and stonecutters offered free tombstones. Today, a crooner from the heavily Kurdish province of Hakkari answered the call and dumped his dollars, with a video to prove it. 

Sporting a crown crafted from lira banknotes and singing his latest composition extolling the virtues of the Turkish currency, Aydin Aydin threw a fistful of greenbacks into the Zap River near his native village of Bagisli, on the Iraqi border. Some of Aydin's fellow villagers, similarly adorned with lira crowns, braved the snow to join him in the bizarre ceremony. “In keeping with our esteemed president’s orders, I am supporting the campaign to ditch dollars,” Aydin declared.

Few, however, believe that such a display, with its attendant whiff of self-promotion, will help reverse the downward spiral of Turkey’s once robust economy.

Erdogan launched his appeal for Turks to convert their foreign currency into gold or liras last month, after the currency sank to its lowest value since the 2008 global financial crisis. Most economists blame the lira's fall on a strong dollar buoyed by the prospect of the US Federal Reserve implementing an interest rate hike and domestic instability compounded by the July 15 coup attempt. Erdogan, however, has resorted to his usual conspiracy mongering to explain why the lira has lost nearly a fifth of its value against the dollar this year.