ISTANBUL: Turkey's lira weakened to its second record low in two days on Tuesday, in line with other emerging market currencies weighed down by concerns over progress on a potential new debt deal for Greece and Russian involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.
The head of the Kremlin's Security Council was quoted as saying on Tuesday that the United States was trying to drag Russia into the Ukrainian conflict to try to force a change of power in Moscow.
The European Commission said there was no formal proposal for resolving Greece's debt although talks were ongoing before a series of meetings of euro zone finance ministers and EU leaders in Brussels.
Persistent concern over political interference in Turkey's central bank rose after Sunday's remarks by President Tayyip Erdogan criticising interest rate policy, the latest call for the bank to cut rates to boost growth.
In addition, an Erdogan aide said late on Monday it would be the central bank's fault if the lira became a problem and that it still had room to reduce interest rates by up to another 75 basis points.
The lira fell to a record low of 2.5 by 1400 GMT, a day after touching a previous record low of 2.4993 on Monday.
Turkey's central bank has so far resisted a rate cut and ruled out a meeting before the regularly scheduled Feb. 24 date.
The main Istanbul share index fell 0.85 percent to 83,855.15 points. The two-year bond yield traded at 8.43 percent, up from 8.36 percent on Monday.
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