ISTANBUL, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Turkey"s lira continued its recovery on Thursday after a historic slide to record lows this week triggered by President Tayyip Erdogan"s defence of interest rate cuts. The lira , traded at 11.85 at 0400 GMT, firming some 1.9% from a close of 12.0820 on Wednesday. It hit its weakest level of 13.45 against the greenback on Tuesday. The currency hit all-time lows against the dollar in all 11 consecutive sessions before Wednesday and has lost as much as 45% of its value this year, with around half of those losses occurring since the start of last week. Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Kim Coghill