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Currency exchange in Istanbul
Photo: Sedat Elbasan / dpa
Turkish authorities now want to use legal means to fight the decline of the lira.
The Turkish banking supervisory authority BDDK has published a list of people and Twitter accounts against whom the authority has brought criminal charges via Twitter.
The institute has filed a criminal complaint under Article 74 of the Banking Act, it said.
The people mentioned had spoken on social media and media outlets in order to influence exchange rate movements.
The rule they are alleged to have violated concerns the dissemination of "unsubstantiated claims that can damage or tarnish a bank's reputation" through public channels, reports Reuters.
Among the accused is Durmus Yilmaz, who headed the central bank between 2006 and 2011 and is now a member of the opposition.
Rusdu Saracoglu, another former central bank governor, is also on the list published by the banking regulator.
Journalists and economists are also mentioned.
The announcement did not explain which specific statements triggered the ad.
Just last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced measures to stop the decline in the value of the Turkish currency.
The Turkish lira was in free fall in December and finally hit an all-time low of 18.36 against the US dollar on December 20 - a loss of more than 60 percent in one year.
After the Turkish government announced the support measures, the share price recovered somewhat.
However, the lira is still 35 percent weaker than a year ago in relation to the dollar.
The main problem of the lira is the rapid loss of credibility of the Turkish central bank.
The central bank has been on a strict rate cut since late summer despite high inflation of a good 21 percent.
The rate of decline in the lira will only fuel inflation.
Erdoğan takes the view, contrary to common economic theory, that high interest rates promote inflation.
He is constantly putting pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates further.
Again and again he fired central bank members who opposed his course.
"The complaint serves as a threat"
The BDDK's list also includes economist Guldem Atabay, who writes for the Para Analiz website.
She has not yet been formally informed of the complaint, she said, according to the Financial Times (FT).
However, she suspects that the move is related to the concerns she has expressed about the possible risks of the new depository instrument.
"The complaint serves as a threat to the other economists who are also drawing attention to the government's political mistakes," she said, according to the newspaper.
"I will continue to try to inform people about what I see and what is mathematically and scientifically based."
A sharp decline in the central bank's foreign exchange reserves at the beginning of last week indicates that state institutions have bought billions of liras to support the currency, writes the "FT".
Turkey's net foreign balances fell by $ 5.9 billion in the first two days of last week, according to calculations by the newspaper, based on data from the central bank.
Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said in a television interview on Monday that there were no such interventions on December 20.
The lira stabilized after the citizens of Turkey "sold their dollars in a hurry" after Erdoğan's promise to protect the lira deposits.
mmq / Reuters
