Turkey can't escape the impact of a Moody’s Investors Service downgrade simply by dismissing the report — but it's trying.

On March 7, Moody's broke the bad news: It was downgrading Turkey's credit rating to Ba2 from Ba1; both are considered "junk" status. The outlook for the designation was listed as stable, meaning the poor rating is unlikely to change anytime soon. In addition, Moody’s downgraded the long-term senior unsecured debt rating of the Treasury’s Asset Leasing entity, which handles sukuk lease certificates (Islamic bonds), to Ba2 from Ba1.

On March 9, the immediate impact of the changes was seen as Moody’s downgraded 14 Turkish banks. Decisions about bank ratings rarely make it into Turkish news, particularly because they remind people of the impact of the Zarrab/Halkbank case. Yet pro-government and opposition news outlets alike reported Moody’s decision.

Pro-government headlines were particularly telling. For example, Daily Sabah wrote about “Moody’s Scandalous Turkey Decision.” The columnist somehow concluded Turkey must be on the correct path. Fahrettin Altun, who writes for both Turkish and English versions of Sabah, also penned an eye-opening column in English titled “Moody’s Love for Fethullah Gulen,” referring to the exiled Turkish cleric and his Gulen movement, which Turkey blames for a 2016 coup attempt. In his column, Altun argued that the rating decision was “probably written with direction from [the Gulen movement], aiming to devalue the Turkish lira.”