Turkey's Economy Is In Big Trouble And Its Options Are Running Out

As Turks, it was right in front of our eyes. Some of us chose to see and some others looked aside. No doubt censorship on mainstream media played a vital role in deluding the masses.

Turkey's economic crises were blatantly stepping up for years, and the Turkish lira's free fall against the foreign currencies last week created a panic wave in the Turkish markets. Only on Friday, August 10, the lira took a near 20 per cent plunge.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tried to calm down the business world and vowed "this will pass".

His son-in-law, Finance and Treasury Minister Berat Albayrak, held a conference, right after Erdogan's unconvincing relieving attempts, to introduce "the New Economy Model of Turkey", and the country's most prominent business people were lined up to hear the right promises. But it was in vain.

Albayrak said nothing solid, and he repeated his father-in-law's catchwords: "This will pass ..." 

Will it really pass?

Nobel winner economist Paul Krugman says "no" in his NYT article "Partying like it's 1998", suggesting this is only the beginning.

And the Guardian's Larry Elliot says "Erdoğan or the central bank have days to prevent a tsunami of selling and a collapse of the lira" and explains why the Turkish economy's downfall may trigger a bigger effect in the world markets. 

This next week is even more important for Turkey as President Erdogan, who recently gained almost omnipotent powers, blames "foreign powers" for waging an economic war against Turkey. Markets do not like conspiracy theories, unlike Turkish media.

As a Turkish citizen, witnessing chaos in recent years due to political crises, terror attacks, increasing pressure on media, civil society and threats against secular structure of the state, I believe the economic crises will accelerate Turkey's disengagement from the West and will cause much bigger problems for the whole nation, which is already exhausted.