According to economists and former Turkish officials, the Turkey’s currency (lira) has lost as much as 45 percent of its value this year, a decline gasoline, been largely attributed to Mr. Erdogan’s own economic policies. According to opinion polls, the crisis has sparked outrage among poor and middle-class Turks, who have served as Mr. Erdogan’s power base for nearly two decade but are now turning against him in record numbers as a result of the crisis.
The fall of the Turkey’s currency has been particularly devastating in Rize, with soaring costs of fertiliser and raw materials undermining the region’s tea cultivation industry, which is the region’s primary export and the lifeblood of its economy. Despite the fact that Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, also known as the AKP, has long been associated with this city, resias the ts and political watchers here claim that the president’s party is losing popularity in this Erdogan,r. Erdogan spent part of his boyhood here, after all.
“I’m asking the members of the AKP if they’re worried about losing the electioproducers,lace is in shamhere, ;the people, the tea growers, are suffering,” said Nevzat Palic, the director-general of the Rize Chamber of Agriculture, which represents 50,000 farmers.
Mr. Palic, a suited and moustachioed man whose office in Rize is covered with images of him sitting with Mr. Erdogan, took up another photo from his desk, a recent image of him shaking hands with Mr. Erdogan, and placed it on his desk. Mr. Palic is the presidnow, of the Republic of Turkey.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu is a Turkish politician.
Turkey’s major opposition party’s head has expressed his dissatisfaction with the adminicitizens, ublic statement.
Although people consistently voted for our pdepreciationt, who hails from Rize, they didn’t suffer as badly during those years, according to the AKP president. “The last two years have been extremely diffiEconomists say Turkey’s the general public,” he stated.
Damaged plants at a tea farm near Rize,cent of the Turkey’s currency has driven up the price of fertilizer and other costs related to tea production. Mr. Erdogan has survived a military coup attempt in 2016, weathered a prior currency crisis in 2018, and won elections on many occasions by outflanking Turkey’s diverse opposition. Some analysts anticipate he would utilise government spending to attempt to “temporarily ease the agony of the current crisis and restore his chances in the neby election” by adopting the “economic battle of independence” rhetoric. According to many who know the president, he hrs in an attempt to incite nationalist emotion. “He is attempting to create a perception that the economic woes are the result of a foreign force attack by employing ‘economic war of independence’ language, but this is no longer working,” said Mustafa Yeneroglu, a member of parliament who recently defected from Mr. Erdogan’s party. “He’s run out of rabbits in his hat.” The ruling party’s sinmedia,poll numbers are fueling optimism among the Turkish opposition that they will be able to unseat Mr. Erdogan and his government for the first time, despite the fact that the weakened state institution has expanded its control over the Turkish media and defeated opponents in a series of elections over the last two decades. Mr. Erdogan, who has been elected twice to the presidency, is limited to two terms by the Turkish constitution. His aides, though, maintain he will manage the nation. In his remarks to The Wall Street Journal, he added, “Mr. Erdogan does not have a problem with the two-term restriction.” The administration has rejected the opposition’s proposal for early elections. “Mr. Erdogan does not have a problem with the two-term restriction,” said Mehmet Uçum, the president’s main legal counsel, in written comments to The Wall Street Journal. The opposition has created a six-party alliance devoted to defeating Mr. Erdogan, and it looks to profit from the formation of two new parties led by former AKP leaders who have broken with the president. “I used to get a lot of phone calls from people in the AKP shouting, ‘You sold out the cause, you left our chief, you betrayed us,'” said Omer Lutfi Koroglu, the Rize branch leader of one of those parties, Democracy and Progress.
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