What's happening in Turkey?

The Briefing Room

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.8 • 731 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Turkey in the past two weeks in protest at the arrest and jailing of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu. He’s seen as one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's strongest political rivals and since his arrest he’s been voted as the opposition party’s presidential candidate in the next elections. He’s been accused of corruption, which he strongly denies and his supporters see his detainment as a political move by the Government. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss whether we’re witnessing the end of democracy in Turkey.

Guests: Mark Lowen, BBC Correspondent and former BBC Istanbul Correspondent Dr Ziya Meral, Lecturer in International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS Firdevs Robinson, Turkish journalist and broadcaster Monica Marks, Assistant Professor Middle East Politics , NYU in Abu Dhabi

Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley, Kirsteen Knight and Beth Ashmead Latham Sound engineers: Dave O’Neill and James Beard Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Vadon

(Image: Demonstration organised by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) against the detention of Istanbul’s mayor, in Istanbul, Turkey - 29 March 2025. Credit: Tolga Bozoglu/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.7	In less unusual times, we might have taken more notice of what's been happening in Turkey.
0:14.5	There, huge protests have followed the arrest and imprisonment of the opposition leader and mayor of Istanbul, Ekram Imamolu.
0:22.6	Many analysts saw him as a certain victor in the 2028 presidential elections toppling the
0:27.9	party of the all-powerful president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It seems the fight is now on as to whether
0:33.6	Turkey, a key NATO ally, remains any kind of a democracy.
0:38.6	So, who will win that fight?
0:41.2	Or will the loser be Turkey itself?
0:44.0	Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out.
0:50.0	First, President Erdogan has been in power either as Prime Minister or President for 22 years.
0:56.2	Who is he and how has he ruled?
0:59.3	The BBC's Mark Lowen was Istanbul correspondent for five years from 2014.
1:04.5	He returned to cover the recent protests and was deported.
1:08.6	Always a badge of journalistic honour.
1:11.1	Mark Lowen, how did President Erdogan get started in politics?
1:15.3	He was born into a pretty rough working class religious family in Istanbul,
1:21.2	and he rose through Islamist politics in the 1980s and 1990s, when Islamist parties were seen very much as kind
1:32.9	of second class, they would look down upon by the secular regime.
1:39.1	And he then became, slightly out of nowhere, mayor of Istanbul in 1994. He was a really surprised
1:45.6	winner there. He transformed the city. He continued to rise through the Islamist party that he had
1:51.2	joined. He was then put in prison for reciting a poem that was deemed Islamic and offensive
1:58.0	by the secular leaders. His party was banned. Then he came out of
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.