Turkey slides towards dictatorship. Why is the West so quiet?
The News Agents
Global
4.2 • 4.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2025
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The jailing of Turkeys main opposition leader - President Erdogan's biggest rival - has sent thousands on to the streets in protest. Students who’ve never lived under anyone’s rule but Erdogan are now fearful this spells the end of democracy in the once great bastion of free secular expression and economic growth. Is Erdogan following the Putin playbook for staying in power? Is Trump about to follow both? And why is no one in NATO prepared to call it out? We speak to the main opposition party who are fearful the West has turned a blind eye.
Later, what WAS that Tucker Carlson interview with Steve Whitkoff? Why do they both love Putin so much? And is anyone surprised they haven’t reached a peace deal?
Editor: Tom Hughes
Executive Producer: Louis Degenhardt
Producer: Natalie Indge
Digital Editor: Michaela Walters
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Production: Rory Symon, Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal
Digital Journalist: Michael Baggs
Don’t forget you can also subscribe to our other News Agents podcasts via the link below:
https://linktr.ee/thenewsagents
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal https://nordvpn.com/thenewsagents Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.1 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:16.5 | That was the sound of the streets of Istanbul last night. |
| 0:24.4 | Thousands have headed on to the streets in what are now illegal protests. |
| 0:29.3 | They have been banned by the government by President Erdogan |
| 0:33.0 | after he called for the arrest and subsequent jailing of the man who is essentially the chief opposition leader, the biggest threat to his presidency. |
| 0:43.3 | It looks like Turkey, once a proud democracy, is sliding into dictatorship. |
| 0:50.2 | And why does that matter? It matters because Turkey is a member of NATO. It plays a vital role in the Middle East, plays a role in Ukraine, Russia. It affects all of us. Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:07.6 | The Newsagents. It's John. It's Emily. |
| 1:11.3 | And it all began last Wednesday, nearly a week ago, |
| 1:15.7 | with the arrest of a very popular, very charismatic politician, |
| 1:20.0 | Istanbul's mayor, Ekram Imamoliu. |
| 1:23.1 | He was taken away, detained on, |
| 1:26.4 | and I'm going to use my quotation marks here, terrorism charges, |
| 1:30.1 | corruption charges, spurious charges, say him and his party, the CHP, sparked by a rivalry, a jealousy, |
| 1:40.7 | a sense that he was a threat to Erdogan's presidency. He was held for five days and during those days |
| 1:47.8 | any protests were banned. They have been outlawed but they have still happened. And on Sunday morning, |
| 1:55.2 | very early, a court decreed that he was guilty of those charges. |
| 2:01.9 | They've sent him to jail. |
| 2:03.6 | And after that, the protests on the streets of Istanbul |
| 2:06.2 | and other major cities got even loud of. |
| 2:12.7 | The army of it. And if you think there's no smoke without fire, there must be something in it of the charges. Let me just |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Global, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Global and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.