Chloe Hadjimatheou
speaker
3,299 appearances
16 recordings
2 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard 27 Aug
Chloe Hadjimatheou’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 11 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 4.
Appearances
This is George, the businessman who finally agreed to tell us his story.
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He spoke to us in Arabic, so we've used an actor to voice his words.
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We spent a weird and fascinating evening in his company.
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It was a real lesson in how the Syrian elites live, and I'd love to tell you more about it, but I can't.
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All I can say is that George was mixing in the circles that I want to know about.
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Wealthy, influential, powerful people.
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He says he only ever met Asthma in person a couple of times, which I'm not sure if I buy.
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But I also get she's toxic right now.
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And even in an anonymous interview, people don't necessarily want to admit their proximity.
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He did fall out of favor with parts of the regime, particularly Bashar, which is why he's speaking to us now.
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It also means he's not exactly a neutral commentator.
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But he did have other regime friends and he knew a lot of what was going down in the halls of the presidential palace.
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Anyway, George says that as a businessman, he really felt asthma's controlling presence.
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By now, this isn't news to me, but he says her influence didn't stop there.
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He says that ministers and heads of agencies had this deferential, honorific title for her.
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It sort of translates as Madam, I guess.
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Anyway, it's a sign of respect.
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One of the difficulties with doing interviews in another language is that it can be hard to pick up on the nuances of what people are saying in the moment.
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Sarah was there interpreting for us and she was having to balance keeping George comfortable while relaying the headlines to us.
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So it was actually only when I was pouring over the transcript that the last thing he said really hit me.
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Showing 101–120 of 3,299 · page 6 of 165
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