Türkiye’s economy during Erdogan’s 22-year rule

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency, the assessment of how many management Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the leader of the Justice and Development Party, on the economy of Turkey, is the subject of economic analysis by many writers of this country. They believe that Erdoğan, both as Prime Minister and as President, has always complicated prescriptions for the Turkish economy, which, with the exception of the first few years, did not have a professional flavor and caused damage.

They say, Erdogan was successful in attracting foreign capital and managing inflation in the first years of Akparty’s coming to power, but he gradually adopted an authoritarian model and led Turkey to bankruptcy.

Now that one year has passed since the third term of Erdogan’s presidency, Turkish economic analysts have gone to the issue of what the history of economic developments in recent years tells us and how should Erdogan’s record and performance be evaluated.

Turkey’s economy from where to where

On the left side of the photo, Erdogan We see the year 2002, when he became the prime minister after a short legal struggle, and on the right side, we see the photo of Erdogan in 2024, who became the president for the third time.

According to the report, the changes are as follows:

1 US dollar in 2002 was 1 Lira and 67 Korosh and now it is close to 33 Lira. Euro has also reached 35 lira from 1 lira and 66 kuroush. Each liter of gasoline in 2002 was only 1 lira and 62 khorosh, but now it is close to 44 lira and diesel has also reached 41 from 1 and 48.

In 2002 and In the year that Erdogan became the prime minister, each kilo of red meat in Turkey was only 9 liras, and now it has exceeded 600 liras! Leaving aside the taxes and bank interest, every 1 loaf of bread has increased from the meager rate of 18 khorosh to 10 lira in these 22 years and has become more expensive by more than 52 times.

Each 1 US dollar in 2002, when Erdogan came to power, was less than 2 liras, and now it has exceeded 33 liras. In the past 22 years, in addition to regression, he talks about “melting” and the analysis of forces.

He wrote in one of his economic analyzes: “Turkey in 2000 AD and In the last year of the 20th century, it was ranked 17th in terms of world GDP ranking. But unfortunately, at the end of 2021, it fell to the 21st rank. The World Economic Outlook Database of the International Monetary Fund shows that during the ruling of the Justice and Development Party, Turkey has been on a downward path year after year and climbed to the 16th place several times, but with the adoption of Erdogan’s totalitarian and authoritarian policy, then Since the country’s political system changed from parliamentary to presidential in 2018, we fell to the 20th place.

According to Turkish economic analysts, the government created by the Justice and Development Party of Turkey has achieved very good growth in the first 12 years of its rule. found and it seems that the high growth that started after the 2001 crisis has turned into a contraction as a result of the global crisis in 2009.

Turkey has successfully Overcame the effects of the global crisis. But after a few years, especially in 2019 and 2020, the voices of income analysts warned about the accumulation of foreign debt and the bankruptcy of the country’s economy.

Before Erdogan and the Justice Party came to power and development, the average unemployment rate in Turkey was between 7.5 and 8% and it can be considered as the normal unemployment rate for Turkey. But with the economic crisis of 2001 and just before the AKP came to power, the unemployment rate increased to 11%. Although Erdogan’s government allocated a significant part of its foreign exchange resources to job creation, but it could never reduce the unemployment figure to single digits. Despite the average growth of more than 5 percent in During the rule of Justice and Development Party, the unemployment rate, which was an average of 8%, reached 10.6% and did not decrease.

Was the previous government to blame?

Ejvit-Yilmaz-Baghceli coalition government was practically a crisis-ridden and bankrupt government, and the Justice and Development Party He won in difficult circumstances. But the important point here is that before Erdogan came to power, the support of the International Monetary Fund was included in Turkey’s situation, and with international aid, Erdogan was able to raise inflation to 8% by 2008, which was an ideal and admirable figure. But after that golden age, the situation worsened year by year and Turkey even experienced 3-digit inflation above 100%.

According to Turkish economic experts, one of the biggest damages to the Turkish economy in the past few years , were the consequences of the 2018 referendum during which Erdoğan practically removed the parliament from the important decisions of the country and took the helm of the presidency of the presidential system with a lot of powers and without any kind of institutional supervision.

Of course, Erdogan did another thing in parallel with that, which was turning to patriarchy and employing his son-in-law, friends and relatives in very sensitive administrative positions of the country. In such a way that at least 11 friends and close friends of Erdogan became members of the board of directors of the most important banks in Turkey, without having any specific management and economic experience. He lost himself and the bank interest rate was quickly reduced in order to satisfy the conservatives in favor of the ruling party.

Other important economic events during this period were:

1. An unprecedented increase in Turkey’s foreign debt.

2. The opening of dozens of expensive mega projects without economic justification in order to get votes for the ruling party.

3. Luxury in the pillars of the government, building palaces and the use of airplanes and luxury cars in the presidential institution and ministries.

4. Unprecedented increase Turkey’s military expenses due to its military and showing power in Syria, Iraq, the Mediterranean and Africa.

5. The emergence of the most unprecedented budget deficit and foreign trade deficit.

Where did the privatization income go?

Erdogan in a few years, the sector He sold a significant number of companies, state-owned factories, lands and government funds under the pretext of privatization, and an amount between 70 and 75 billion dollars was earned by the government. But according to Turkish economist Mahvi Eyilmaz, this money was mostly spent on the construction of luxury buildings and significant expenses such as the construction of unnecessary airports and the construction of unused bridges. Many academic figures in Turkey believe that economic problems and Erdoğan’s wrong policies have caused the class gap in this country to reach a worrying state.

Professor Dr. Özgur Demirtas, a famous economist, believes that the government should more than anything Think about justice and take the country out of the current unfair situation. He believes that the independence of the country’s economic institutions and valuing justice is the element that Erdogan has neglected in the last 10 years.

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