ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish doctoral student
Gulfer Ulas saw the first edition of her favourite Thomas Mann collection
published for 33 liras.
She found the second print of the same two-volume
set selling months later at her Istanbul book shop for 70 liras (about $6 at
the latest exchange rate).
اضافة اعلان
The jump exemplifies the debilitating
unpredictability of Turkey’s raging economic crisis on almost all facets of
daily life — from shopping to education and culture.
Publishers fear it could also kill off an industry
that offers a rare voice of diversity in a country where most media obey
President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s socially conservative government.
“I am a PhD student in international relations so I
have to read a lot. I spend almost 1,000 liras a month on books on my reading
list even though I also download from the internet,” Ulas said.
“Book prices are skyrocketing.”
‘Essentials over books’
The
Turkish book industry —
almost entirely dependent on paper imports — pinpoints one of the flaws in the
economic experiment Erdogan has unleashed on his nation of 84 million people in
the past few months.
Erdogan has ripped up the economic rule book by
orchestrating sharp interest rate cuts in a bid to bring down chronically
rising consumer prices.
Economists struggle to remember the last time a big
country has done something similar because cheap lending is widely presumed to
cause inflation — not cure it.
Turks’ fears about further erosion of their purchasing
power prompted a surge in gold and dollar purchases that erased nearly half the
lira’s value in a matter of weeks.
The accelerating losses forced Erdogan last week to
announce new currency support measures — backed by reportedly heavy exchange
rate interventions — that have managed to erase a good chunk of the slide.
Few economists see this as a long-term solution. The
lira now routinely gains or loses five percent of its value a day.
Kirmizi Kedi publishing house owner
Haluk Hepkon
says he fears all this uncertainty “will compel people to priorities buying
essentials and put aside buying books”.
“You publish a book, and let’s say it becomes a hit
and it costs 30 liras. And you go to a second edition in a week and the price
climbs to 35 liras,” Hepkon told AFP.
“Then for the third or fourth printing, only God
knows how much it will cost.”
‘Paying the price’
Turkey’s last official
yearly inflation reading in early December stood at 21 percent — a figure
opposition parties claim is being underreported by the state.
The next report on January 3 is almost certain to
show a big bump because the lira’s implosion has ballooned the price of
imported energy and raw materials such as those needed to make paper.
Applied economics professor Steve Hanke of
Johns Hopkins University calculates Turkey’s current annual inflation rate at more than 80
percent.
Turkish Publishers Association president Kenan
Kocaturk said global supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus
pandemic have contributed to his industry’s problems by raising the price of
unbleached pulp.
Turkey imports the raw material because its own
paper mills have been privatised and then largely shut down.
“Only two of them continue production while the
others’ machines were sold for scrap and their lands were sold,” Kocaturk said.
“Turkey is paying the price for not seeing paper as
a strategic asset.”
‘Resistance’
Publishers are already trying to minimize risks by planning to put fewer
books in print in the coming year.
The Heretik publishing house says it will not print
some books “due to the rise in the exchange rate and the extraordinary increase
in paper costs”.
Aras publishing
house editor Rober Koptas said he was worried because printers represented a
voice of ideological “resistance” in Turkey.
“Almost the entire press speaks in the same voice
and the universities are being silenced,” said Koptas.
“But culture is just as important as food, and maybe
more so given there is a need for educated people to address economic woes,”
Hepkon of Kirmizi Kedi added.
Avid readers such as Ibrahim Ozcay say the crisis is
already keeping them from buying their favorite books for friends.
“I was told that the book I want now costs 38 liras.
I had bought it for 24 liras,” said Ozcay.
“They say this is due to the lack of paper on the market,
which does not surprise me. Everything in Turkey is imported now,” he fumed.
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