21 July 2009 / STAR MEHMET ALTAN,
Between the years of 2002 and 2007, Turkey had a period of uninterrupted growth. But now the nation's economy is shrinking at the same pace as it was growing prior to the global economic crisis.
The system, which was based on foreign debt, a low exchange rate and high interest rates, has now come to a halt due to the global crisis. Looking at things from the classic perspective, the most basic economic problem in Turkey -- “national savings” -- has risen to the top of the agenda. Turkey, since the time of the Ottomans, has been a nation that does not produce its own “economic sources.” The “ban on cigarettes” has precedents all the way back to Murat IV, but the “national savings problem,” which really means “not creating wealth,” has no precedent on which it can lean. Our only issue today is cigarettes, and of course the issues that threaten this nation the most, “unemployment and poverty,” are also singular.
