ISTANBUL — Turkey’s president has claimed the country’s current economic crisis is at least partly due to nationwide anti-government protests nearly a decade ago. Over the weekend, Recep Tayyip Erdogan identified the Gezi demonstrations, which saw hundreds of thousands take to the streets over several weeks in 2013 to challenge growing authoritarianism, as a factor in the spiraling economy. 

“Turkey would have been in a much better place — having a national income of $1.5 trillion —  if not for the betrayals that started with the Gezi incidents,” he told supporters at a Justice and Development Party (AKP) weekend retreat in Ankara. “These betrayals made our country pay a heavy price through the evil triangle of exchange rates, interest and inflation.” 

The protests, which erupted across the country in response to the police’s harsh treatment of environmental activists in Istanbul’s Gezi Park, are a favorite target of the president. He stirred controversy last week when he referred to the protesters as “sluts” and repeated a debunked claim that they had defiled a mosque by drinking beer inside. 

Erdogan’s remarks came as the beleaguered economy shows little sign of a turnaround ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections due by June next year.