Demands to impose sanctions on Ankara as Turkish economy collapses

Amira Sherif

A study by the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights entitled “Human Rights Implications of the Turkish Intervention in Africa: Libya and Somalia as a Model” has called on the international community to impose collective economic sanctions on Turkey in order to stop it from supporting terrorism in Africa.

This comes at a time when the former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund, Desmond Lachman, has revealed that Turkey will be among the first countries that will default on its debts if the global liquidity conditions worsen, indicating that Turkey is going through a stifling economic crisis, which deepened as a result of the global corona pandemic.

In a press statement, Lachman said that Turkish companies and banks will soon face problems in paying about $300 billion in debt due to the weakness of the economy and the currency in the country, stressing that the Turkish economy has become disconnected from reality, which is evident in the excessive optimism contained in Ankara’s latest economic program announced by Erdogan’s son-in-law, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, late last month.

The Turkish president and the finance minister are in the crosshairs of criticism mixed with mockery of the new economic program, which the opposition describes as “ignorant” amid the decline of the lira and the economy. In the latest episodes of mass Turkish anger, doctors in Basak protested for not having obtained their salaries, in conjunction with warnings issued by medical assistants calling for “rebellion” as a result of poor working conditions and the increasing burdens with the high number of corona infections.

The Turkish lira recorded its weakest level in about a week, due to concerns about the possibility of sanctions, after Bloomberg published that Ankara will soon test the Russian S-400 air defense system it bought, as well as the apparent escalation of tensions with the European Union.

It is noteworthy that this economic crisis striking Turkey coincides with Erdogan traveling to Kuwait and then his ally Qatar, on a visit aimed at providing him an economic recovery again and a revival of the lira after the decline in its value.

In this context, IYI Party leader Meral Akşener criticized the new economic program in a meeting of party members, sarcastically saying, “In his new program, the son-in-law has put his uncle’s (Erdogan’s) goals for 2023 into a vacuum. This is what will happen when there are dozens of candidates for this position standing aside, while the president entrusts his son-in-law with the country’s treasury.”

She also strongly criticized Albayrak’s statements about his lack of interest in the foreign exchange rate, saying in this context, “O son-in-law, the value of foreign currencies shows the value of our country’s currency. When the value of our currency decreases, this means that we are getting poorer. Thousands of factories owe foreign currencies and all of our products are linked to imported materials. When the value of foreign currencies rises against the lira, even cheese prices rise. I am talking about cheese and not technology. If you do not look at this aspect, then tell me, by God, O son-in-law, where do you look?”

Analysts believe that if Turkey is unable to secure tens of billions of dollars in financing, it will risk a collapse of its currency, similar to what happened in 2018 when the lira briefly lost half its value in a crisis that shocked emerging markets.