is unusual. even president obama was accused of being too nice to erdogan. he even called erdogan one of the foreign leaders who he talked to the most. what is it about erdogan where u.s. leaders go soft on him? >> reporter: well you have to distinguish between the timing because back in 2008, president at the time prime minister erdogan was a very close western ally. obviously, the west was very keen to keep him within their orbit because he had come in to office in the early 2000s and had really turned turkey much, much closer to a functioning democracy. turkey had seen many military coups over its many years since the fall of the ottoman elm pyre. erdogan did turn turkey towards democracy. but things started to go a little bit away from pure democracy the longer he stayed