New target is our economy: Erdoğan

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 8 said Turkey’s economy was under attack, stating that the motives behind such attacks were the same as that of the July 15, 2016, failed coup attempt and Gezi protests.

“Whatever was the purpose of the Gezi incidents, the same is the purpose of the attacks on our economy,” Erdoğan said, addressing the provincial heads of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

He warned of “a game” against Turkey, built on the “triangle of exchange rates, interest rates, and inflation.”

“The insidious aim behind the July 15 coup attempt and the target in the plans to put our economy into crisis are the same,” Erdoğan stated.

Those who attacked Turkey by using terrorist organizations have failed, and now they have turned to “more insidious ways and methods,” Erdoğan said.

“The new target is our economy. By activating the exchange rate with their midnight operations, by raising interest rates and inflation over the exchange rate, they have repeatedly attacked to crush our country under the economic crisis,” he said.

But the government is prepared against these “attacks by bringing all of its gold abroad to the country and strengthening its foreign exchange reserves,” Erdoğan added.

“Thanks to the additional measures we have taken, the balancing mechanisms we have established and the strong economic policy that we have implemented, we have survived this period with the least damage,” the president said.

Of course, Turkey has “experienced difficulties,” but there is a difference between the targeted results and these problems, Erdoğan added.

The president said that thanks to the “strength and support” the government received from the nation, they have managed to come out of the “uninterrupted attack process” that he and the AKP have experienced, especially in the last eight years.

“If you remember, they started with the first Gezi protests. Do you remember the events where Western media organizations broadcast live day and night and a thousand lies were told at the same time, right? They set out with the so-called ‘tree’ and the so-called ‘environment,’” Erdoğan said.

“They then activated the 17-25 December plot over FETÖ’s militants in the police and judiciary… Then the PKK took the stage. They put their scenario into practice by digging holes in some of our provinces and districts and using innocent people as human shields,” he said.

“Again, standing shoulder to shoulder with our nation, we buried the terrorists in the wells they dug with the selfless struggle of our heroic police, gendarmes and soldiers,” Erdoğan said.

They saw the “game here and that they broke the trap” by taking a determined stance, he added.

He also underlined the significance of the upcoming 2023 elections for the country to be listed among the most powerful countries globally, calling on all party members to start preparing for the elections.

“We have about two years before the elections. I want you to seize every day and every moment of this time in the most efficient way,” the president stated.

All members of the AKP should go out there and meet people, listen to them and their problems and prepare for elections on the field, he stressed.