ISTANBUL, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- "I am exhausted. My shop is empty. I have no sales at all for over two weeks now," said a shop owner with tears in central Istanbul on Monday.

"I really don't know how I am going to pay the rent of my shop next month," he told Xinhua, refusing to be named. "The future is dark. We don't have any clue about what the very near future would be."

Turkish people started to feel the bitter effects of losing value of Turkish lira against the U.S. dollar.

Ozlem Yavuz, a 40-year-old high school teacher, told Xinhua that she and her husband canceled their holiday plan for the upcoming Eid al-Adha festival next week, due to high currency fluctuations.

"We were planning to make a five-day-long road trip to Greece," she said. "But after we saw that the dollar rose even further last night, we immediately gave up."

The lira sank to a fresh record low of 7.24 to the dollar at Sunday night . It stood at 6.91 at 1100 GMT on Monday.

Yavuz is mostly worried about her daughter's future school expenses.

"I paid approximately 450 dollars last August for her English language books. It was equivalent to 1,600 liras by then," she explained, adding "today the same books are over 3,000 liras and I have no clue what would be the cost next month when the schools are open."

Another woman in her 60s, Ayten Yilmaz, said she is keeping her savings she achieved during her long hard working years in a lira account.

"Now all my gains, my insurance for my elderly years are shrinking in front of my eyes," Yilmaz told Xinhua. "Over 40 percent of it just disappeared."

The Turkish currency has lost around 45 percent of its value against the dollar this year due to several diplomatic rifts with the U.S. and the growing vulnerability of the Turkish economy.

Bekir Biklic, the owner of Kale Kitchen, a Turkish importing company, said that the Turkish people should be patient.

"Those who create a desperate atmosphere in Turkey are the ones who play this dollar game with us," he told Xinhua.

The businessman, however, added the trade has been continuing at its own pace in the country and "there is nothing to panic about."

Biklic said a group of businessmen converted a total of 3 million dollars into lira on Monday in a move to show solidarity with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and follow his appeal to prop up the plunging currency.

Erdogan on Sunday announced that the fluctuation in the Turkish lira is a plot against Turkey, and "Turkish people will not give in."

"As Turkey's businessmen and industrialists, we wanted to show to the whole world that we have taken a stand with our state and our president," Biklic said.

"Both Turkish businessmen and people all have to provide all necessary support for the state during this tough period," he added.

The lira dropped more than 16 percent on Friday alone after Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey, doubling steel and aluminum tariffs, over the issue of Andrew Brunson, the jailed American pastor in Turkey.

A Turkish court last month moved Brunson, who was detained two years ago for terrorism charges, from prison to house arrest in the western province of Izmir under judicial control.

Erdogan said the U.S. administration gave Turkey ultimatums and deadlines to free the priest.

The president, however, added that "we have not made concessions on justice so far, and we will never make any."