The Turkish national currency has rapidly been losing value to the US dollar this year amid upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

Axar.az reports quoting Sputnik.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has urged citizens in a speech at a rally in the city of Erzurum to convert their holdings of US dollars and euros to the national currency, the lira, in a bid to halt the dwindling exchange rate.

"My brothers who have dollars or euros under their pillows: Go and convert your money into lira. We will thwart this game together," he said.

Earlier, Erdogan urged the IMF to nominate its loans in gold instead of dollars in order to "save states and nations from this currency pressure."