Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a tough 2019. He had to deal with rising food prices, losing local elections in his political strong hold of Istanbul, power that opposed his ambitions to build a safe zone in north Syria and even scientists who fail to understand the simplicity of calculating salinity levels of the sea.
As the year ends, Hale Akay and Michael MacKenzie discuss the president’s last 12 months through his public remarks and try to understand why Erdoğan said what he did.