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Opinion
August 17, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
following the incidents, with some accusing police of serving the interests of PSD. Romania’s image has been badly tarnished, which is to take over the presidency of the Council of Europe as of next year.
Many have compared the incidents with those in 1990 when miners, summoned by the then presi- dent Ion Iliescu, invaded Bucharest to put an end to anti-governmental protests in the Romanian capital. The miners devastated the headquarters of opposition political parties and attacked citi- zens of Bucharest. Last year, Romanian military prosecutors sent Iliescu and former Prime Minis- ter Petre Roman to stand trial for their role in the brutal repression of street protests in June 1990.
This year, Romania will celebrate 100 years of existence and the protest, organised by
I remember how brutal Turkey’s last dollar crisis was – but so does President Erdogan JamesInTurkey.com
I was a teenager when Turkey’s last major cur- rency devaluation struck in 2001.
A half-hour drive from the presidential palace— where a brawl in which the then president liter- ally hurled a copy of the constitution at one of his ministers triggered calamity—the corridors of my secondary school were abuzz with excited chatter.
I vividly remember us all crowding around com- puter monitors in breaks between lessons, log- ging onto the creaky internet to watch the money we spent every day on our drinks, snacks and bus tickets tumble against the US dollar—5,000 hyper- inflated liras at a time.
the Romanian diaspora, had gained even
more significance as it was bringing together Romanians from over the whole country, united by their desire to show disapproval of corruption in the government and support for the rule of law.
Whatever the reasons behind the violence on Au- gust 10, the events seem to have reignited the anti- governmental protest flame in Romania. Bucharest has become, again, the scene of mass rallies, after the number of protesters had fallen dramatically
in the past year. Following the violent incidents on August 10, people returned on the streets the next two days, asking for the government’s resignation. The protesters looked ready to face any possible violence, wearing marks and scarves around their necks. However, no violent incidents were reported in the following two days.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan pictured in 2002. Back then he had just founded his AKP party partly as a response to Turkey’s 2001 lira collapse and economic crisis. Today observers wonder if it could be his turn to be on the losing side of a financial meltdown.
The rate was roughly 675,000 old lira to the dollar on the morning of 22 February, the day the government decided to let the lira float. It hit 830,000 by lunchtime and was pushing one million by the end of the day.
As we trooped off to an English literature class, our talk would have been familiar to anyone following Turkey’s plight that summer. Will the government survive? Will we suffer?
In my case, the answer was yes—in a matter of weeks. That is how people in Turkey will feel the squeeze this time too.
Scramble for cash
Desperate to keep money flowing in 2001, the gov-