Explainer: Turkey Today

Turkey's nationalist rule continues.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently secured another election victory, leaving many in the West to question the country’s diplomatic future. Dispatch Reporter Charlotte Lawson speaks with Eric Edelman, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Finland, and under secretary of defense for policy, to explain what’s happening under the country’s longest serving leader.

Show Notes:

-Watch: Charlotte Lawson interviews Eric Edelman

-Eric Edelman for The Dispatch, “Erdoğan’s Impending Victory and Turkey’s Future Course”

-Charlotte Lawson’s piece for The Dispatch, “Recep Tayipp Erdoğan Notches Another Victory”

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Comments (12)
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  1. Pohl

    Nice, terse convo.

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    Paul Beltman

    Well done - very informative.

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    BWG

    Thanks Eric and Charlotte for this insightful discussion. Turkey will always be strategically important due simply to it geographic location. Armies of conquest have marched back and forth through that region probably since armies existed. It may be that any leader of Turkey will decide it’s in their best interest to play Western powers off Eastern, and so never be a reliable NATO member.

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  4. Payette

    Very good, sober, informative interview. I look forward to more explainers like this.

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  5. Peteralger04

    A very thoughtful interview with very knowledgeable host and speaker. I love the Turkey coverage, keep it coming!

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    Abby

    Really liking these explainer podcasts! Keep them coming.

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    J. Eric

    Very informative! Thank you both

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  8. Philebus

    Excellent interview. I did not have a problem with your voice, or diction as some have expressed - easily understood. Don't know if the interview was conducted in the same studio, but sometimes sound levels can be problematic from remotes. I am a soft spoken person with a low and gravelly voice - had to work on it for public speaking. Perfectly fine voice, don't sweat it, unless you feel the need.

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  9. Digitalcamo280

    Please take this as constructive criticism as this was a hard one to sit through. While all there was hard work and good information being presented, Charlotte really needs to develop her radio voice. The vocal fry unfortunately pulled my focus away from what she was presenting but that is something that can be worked on and improved. Keep up the good reporting though.

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    1. SkyDoc

      Agree on the vocal fry. Very distracting from otherwise great content.

      There were moments.when she spoke clearly, so I'm fairly confident it's habit rather than a chord polyp or something.

      Fortunately, it's nothing that can't be improved with practice. Developing good reporting is much more difficult, so she's already got the hard part down.

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    2. Kbirkett

      I'm somewhat curious as to why the assumption that this is a defect Charlotte needs to improve as opposed, say, to the way she just happens to speak, or a not-usually-present feature of her voice due to an illness or condition she is struggling with at the moment. (If the latter, it was rather commendable that she managed the interview, was it not?) I'm quite sensitive to volume variations and yet I was able to hear both speakers easily without adjusting the volume for either.

      That said, there would be room for the audio team to boost her volume level a bit if that helps some listeners.

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  10. Aproithis

    Nice content here, but Charlotte's very soft voice is hard to hear at times. Project a bit, please!

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