Turkey can’t part with currency zeroes
Though Turkey wiped off six zeroes from its currency a decade ago, politicians stick to old figures, hoping for a stronger propaganda impact in the run-up to general elections.
A March 2014 post from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s verified Twitter account read, “We’ve invested 6 quadrillion Turkish lira in Batman over the past 12 years.”
Awesome. In current exchange rates, the figure amounts to more than $2.3 quadrillion. What city could have seen such colossal investment in 12 years? Batman must be the wealthiest place in the world. But no, it is a small, underdeveloped city in Turkey’s southeast, known for rampant unemployment and poverty, along with an extraordinary suicide rate among women.
