Turkey's daily Sabah, a top-selling newspaper, on March 6 published an article titled, “The exchange rate conspiracy of the interest rate lobby." The story recounted a conspiracy theory arguing that the rapid increase of the value of the US dollar against the Turkish lira was a carefully crafted plot against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s "New Turkey” in the lead-up to the general elections in June. According to the article, the co-conspirators were “London bankers, their local collaborators and the parallel [i.e., pro-Gulen] media.” Moreover, the head of Turkey’s Central Bank, Erdem Basci, was helping these evil powers by “doing nothing.”
The Turkish media is often full of such overblown news, but Sabah is no ordinary paper — it is the most dedicated mouthpiece of Erdogan. This particular conspiracy theory is no ordinary one as it has been repeatedly promoted by both Erdogan and his close circle. No wonder on the same day the Sabah article was published, Erdogan asserted that the dramatic rise of the value of the dollar against the lira was connected to “the work of the interest rate lobby.”