Skip to main content

Turkey’s conflicting visions of the economy

There is a growing conflict in Ankara between two distinct views of the economy: the rational/conventional one led by Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and the conspiratorial/revisionist one led by Yigit Bulut, senior adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde (L) chats with Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan (R) and Turkish Central Bank Governor Erdem Basci (C) during a family photo session at the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Istanbul February 10, 2015. The United States urged a meeting of the Group of 20 leading economies not to resort to currency devaluations to boost exports, while a draft communique gave a gloomy assessment on Tuesday of the outlook f

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.”

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.