The Turkish banking regulator has filed criminal proceedings against more than 20 people, including former central bank governors, journalists and economists, accusing them of attempting to manipulate the country’s exchange rate, a move that may ease criticism of the government’s unorthodox economic policies .

The banking regulator said on Twitter on Monday that it is responding to “their social media and [through] Media” in Currency crisis The lira has depreciated by 35% this year.

Among the defendants is Durmus Yilmaz, who led the Central Bank from 2006 to 2011 and is now an opposition MP. Rusdu Saracoglu, another former central bank governor, is also on the list published by the banking supervisory agency.

The regulator stated that its complaint was based on an article in the Banking Law, which prohibits the publication of statements in the media that may slander or damage the bank’s reputation.

The Turkish government often uses the courts to suppress the voices of critics and file criminal proceedings against journalists and social media users for their comments during previous rounds of financial market volatility.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Think the lira is weak It will boost exports and economic growth, and has ordered the central bank to lower interest rates if the official inflation rate exceeds 20%. He believes that, contrary to mainstream economic theory, high interest rates will fuel inflation.

Erdogan was forced to launch Emergency measures On December 20, the exchange rate of the lira against the US dollar fell to a historical low of 18.4, a decline of 60% throughout the year. The rescue plan includes the state guarantees to compensate depositors against the impact of currency depreciation, helping the lira to rise to 11.5 against the dollar.

One A sharp decline Earlier last week, the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves showed that state agencies bought billions of liras to support the currency. According to calculations by the Financial Times based on central bank data, Turkey’s net foreign assets fell by US$5.9 billion in the first two days of last week.

Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said in a television interview on Monday that there had been no such intervention on December 20, and that the Turks were “racing to sell the U.S. dollar after Erdogan promised to protect the lira deposits. After that, the lira has recovered most of its losses. .

Guldem Atabay, an economist who wrote for the Para Analiz website and was named by the central bank, said that she had not received a formal notice of complaint, but suspected that the move was related to her concerns. potential risks In the new deposit facility.

“The complaint poses a threat to other economists, and they also drew attention to the government’s policy errors,” she said. “I will continue to work hard to make people understand what I see, which is based on mathematics and science.”