Turkey is paying for Erdogan's adventurism

Erdogan's adventurism has come at a cost, a cost that unfortunately the Turkish people will have to bear. As the Turkish president waged regional battles to claim leadership of the Muslim world, Turkey's economy has sunk.

Turkey's currency Lira is in a bad shape. It hit a record low of 8.15 against the dollar. It has lost 26 per cent of its value this year. Turkey has spent $134 billion in the past 18 months to prop up the Lira but seems like those efforts have failed to deliver.

These are difficult times for the Turkish economy with inflation in Turkey reaching 11.7 per cent last month. The Turkish central bank has raised its inflation forecast to 12.1 per cent for this year. High inflation rate means the goods in the market become more expensive. The people of Turkey will have to shell out more money to buy something and they have only Erdogan to blame for the crisis.

Turkey's Presiden Recep Tayyip Erdogan dreams of becoming the leader of the Muslim world. He has been picking fights with neighbours, insulting world leaders, waging proxy wars and fighting territorial battles but a majority of Turkish people don't support his agenda and his party's ratings have fallen to 31 per cent.

It was Erdogan who started the fight with France by insulting Macron and bought the S-400 from Russia even when Turkey faced strong opposition for the deal from NATO. It is Erdogan who is supplying Azerbaijan with proxy Syrian fighters egging them on to keep the fight against Armenia going and it was Erdogan who kicked off a fight with Greece in the eastern Mediterranean.

Now, the Turkish economy is paying the price for his bullying and misadventures. The Ottoman dream drives Erdogan. The dream to re-build the identity of Turkey as a Muslim nation with him as the leader and the dream to lead the Islamic world. 

Erdogan is trying to project himself as the saviour of the Muslim faith. Even today when the Lira was taking a nosedive, Erdogan was busy sabre rattling with the West.