President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, regarding the economic policies discussed after Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek’s statement “We will return to the rational ground”, said, “We accepted that our Minister of Treasury and Finance is taking his steps with the Central Bank quickly and easily. We declared our determination to reduce inflation to single digits. You know, when we reduced (inflation) to single digits during my prime ministership, the interest rate was 4.6 and inflation was 6.2. We did these things together then and we have said the same to Mr. Minister now, we have to do it together in the same way. We worked with the theory of ‘low interest, low inflation’ then. I work with the same understanding now, I have the same idea and I believe that we can achieve this in this way.” (Agencies 15.06.2023)

Comment:
As long as the evil triangle of the capitalist economic system – the bank, the interest rate, the stock market – is followed, the same results are certain to occur. What are these consequences? Inflation, that is, the cost of living, the fall in purchasing power. Crises have become the nature of the capitalist system. A handful of elites get richer every day while the people get poorer. We can also call this the hand of the rich that never leaves the pockets of the people. Interest can be seen as both the impoverishment and exploitation of society. These are the inevitable consequences of the implementation of the capitalist economic system.

The “success” of the economic policies of President Erdoğan during his prime ministership, which he speaks so highly of, is in fact the cause of today’s crises. Either he does not know this fact, or he covers it up even though he does. The amount paid to interest in the 11 years of his prime ministership was 389 billion dollars. Especially with regard to the years spoken highly of; In 2008, for example, the amount paid for interest peaked at 40 billion dollars. In 2022, with the interest rates of the Currency Protected Deposit (KKM), the interest bill burdened on the people is 24.4 billion dollars. As long as you are not against interest but against high interest, nothing will change. You said there is ‘Nas’, but you did not even pay attention to the ‘Nas’ on the subject. You only exploited the feelings of the people based on their faith. Today, you will try to fix the economy with a high interest rate hike with the hand of Mehmet Şimşek, whom you reappointed as Finance Minister. You, who made the biggest mistake in the past by giving hundreds of billions of dollars to global gangs in the form of interest, insist on wrong after wrong by continuing the same understanding today. Even though you know that two wrongs do not make a right.

As the welfare and peace of the people is not possible with a corrupt order, salvation will not be possible by pursuing the wrong path. The interest rate you have made this people pay during your rule has exceeded 600 billion dollars. The people have not only paid the price of the brutal capitalist order you have implemented economically. They have also been forced to pay a heavy price in terms of social, political, military, faith, morals and values. Give up the tried mistakes, the known evils, the solutions that will not help, and the Capitalist system that corrupts the society. You can end this chaos, this oppression, seduction and mischief by returning to the pure Islamic System. You have reached the end of your life and the end of your rulership. As before, we continue to tell you the truth, even though you turn a deaf ear to it. In the hope that you will turn away from this falsehood.

Ahmet SAPA