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I just saw three articles about Turkish soap opera sensation in Balkans and Arab world. I am surprised cuz i didn't even know myself that these series gained success THAT much! both in Balkans and Arab world;
This article is from an Austrian newspaper and they present the situation with the words like "Ottoman Television Runs Like Clockwork" as expected cuz Germans and French too, prefers to see it that way;
This New York Times article talks about the changes in daily life of Arab people because of Turkish soap operas. Isn't it weird for an American newspaper to have an article about Turkish series gaining popularity in Arab world???;
This video is hilarious
I knew that these series are being aired in Arab world with heavy editing and censorship but despite that, it says that Arab clerics wanted death penalty for broadcasters of Turkish series in their country and it would be permissible to kill them on sight!!!
YouTube - Arab world is transfixed by Turkish soap operas
It looks like Turkish series are so popular as well as hated by both in Balkans and Arab world.
Turkish Soap Operas Take Balkans by Storm
Binbir Gece ("Thousand and one nights") is a Turkish television series produced by TMC Film that was originally aired by Kanal D between 2006-2009. It stars Halit Ergenç, Bergüzar Korel, Tardu Flordun and Ceyda Düvenci.
The show was also aired in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia on RTL TV, Kuwait, in Romania on Kanal D, the Republic of Macedonia on A1, Serbia on Prva TV, Greece on Macedonia TV and ANT1, Montenegro on TV Vijesti, Hayat TV and Alternativna televizija in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia on Pink SI.
Show is aired in Kosovo as well. The story is about Şehrazat Evliyaoğlu, a talented architect who works in Binyapı, a construction company owned by Onur Aksal and Kerem İnceoğlu. She is the mother of a five-year old boy who suffers from leukemia and needs an urgent and very expensive surgery. Onur Aksal is a successful businessman and Şehrazat desperately tries to find ways to borrow the money she needs for her son's very costly surgery, a bone marrow transplantation, because her little son's life is in danger. Only her boss Onur, who is secretly attracted to her, accepts to give her the money on condition that she spends one night with him.
Turkish soap opera attracts regional audience
Currently Binbir Gece is being shown on one of Greece’s biggest TV networks, Ant1, and at prime time, 9 p.m.
The new Turkish mania has become so widespread in Greece that even in the first day of football's World Cup Binbir Gece captured 30.5 percent of viewers while the match between Uruguay and France caught just 28.2 percent. It is the first time that a soap beat the ratings of a soccer match in Greece.
The two leading actors of Binbir Gece plan to visit the Greek island of Santorini for their summer holiday, reported Espresso, a Greek daily. Last month, the two leading actors were on the front pages of the two most prominent gossip magazines of Greece.
Binbir Gece is also the talk of the town among Greeks who try to overcome the consequences of the financial crisis. “To Vima” leading commentator Kosmas Vidos said in his weekend article that not only the model of soap opera between the two countries is similar but also that Binbir Gece is a good solution for TV networks hit by the crisis.
George Pleios, professor of media at the University of Athens, had a different explanation for soap opera’s success. He said the soap Binbir Gece was not a sign that Greek society realized that the two cultures have a lot in common.
“I think the success of this soap opera shows the growing fear and compassion that the Greek media as well as the society have for the Turkish government and Turkish society,” said Pleios.
“For the Greek public and the media, Turkey is tough to deal with in foreign relations and is full of emotion,” he said. “This emotional aspect is what differentiates Turkey from Europe. Greece has always wanted to be European, even though it has had more in common with non-European societies.
“As a result of Turkey’s leading position in the region, this dichotomy is what leads to the Greek public watching Turkish soap operas to replace the loss of Greek identity in the international arena,” Pleios said.
The Bulgarian Nova Televizia channel broke the record for viewer numbers when it started broadcasting the Turkish soap opera "Binbir Gece." The channel then decided to broadcast another Turkish show, "Dudaktan Kalbe."
Executives at Nova Televizia believe the success of the Turkish programs in Bulgaria is due to similarities in the social culture and lifestyle of the two countries.
In Serbia, soap operas have had a faithful audience since the 1990s. Until just recently, 1,001 Nights, aired on weekdays in primetime on Prva Srpska TV and reigned supreme.
Its run ended on December 10th. After broadcasting the final episode, Korel and Ergenc were guests in the TV studio, where audience members waved banners and had a chance to meet them.
When the Turkish stars took a stroll in downtown Belgrade, fans were surprised and delighted.
Certain travel agencies, determined to cash in on the show's popularity, are offering trips to Turkey dubbed Down Shahrazad's paths.
On Prva Srpska's website, viewers seem to have a real connection with the programme. "Beautiful Onur. The show is great! I hope Onur will finally find happiness," writes a woman named Ivana.
Author Zoran Kesic hosts of one of the most popular talk shows in Serbia, "The Closing Time Republic", which airs on the same channel as 1,001 Nights did. "People get into soaps because they deal with simple, everyday topics and problems that everyone can understand. People are attracted to tales of heartache, deception and betrayal,"
Turkologist Jana Jelyazkova said Bulgarians had different opinions about Turkish people before watching Turkish TV series but that “they have now seen the truth.”
The documentary argues that Turkish TV series have affected Bulgarians’ domestic relations and even name traditions. There are reports that newborn babies were given the names of characters from the series and that Bulgarians’ travel destinations had even changed as well.
“The number of Bulgarian tourists traveling to Turkey has increased by 40 percent. They want to visit the places where TV series are made,” Jelyazkova said.
Turkish soap operas continue to rule the roost of programming in Balkans, with more on the way.
Retailers, tour operators and language schools are cashing in on Croatia's obsession with the romantic affair between gorgeous architect Scheherazade and her boss, Onur. The two protagonists have the nation glued to their TV sets every night of the week at 8pm.
Zagreb school of foreign languages "Sjajna zvijezda" has registered a large interest in the Turkish language. In the last week or two, 50 people signed up to learn; demand has never been so high.
"Our new clients are mainly young women below 30 who are not afraid to admit being motivated by their favourite the TV series. They come having picked up a few words from the show, like "merhaba" (good day) or "iyi geceler" (good evening)," says the school's director Jasmin Selihovic.
And the Kompas travel agency said that the charter flight from Split to Istanbul on 7th of October has been sold out partly thanks to the popularity of the soap.
30 December 2010
http://www.balkanchronicle.com/index...ies&Itemid=415
Binbir Gece ("Thousand and one nights") is a Turkish television series produced by TMC Film that was originally aired by Kanal D between 2006-2009. It stars Halit Ergenç, Bergüzar Korel, Tardu Flordun and Ceyda Düvenci.
The show was also aired in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia on RTL TV, Kuwait, in Romania on Kanal D, the Republic of Macedonia on A1, Serbia on Prva TV, Greece on Macedonia TV and ANT1, Montenegro on TV Vijesti, Hayat TV and Alternativna televizija in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia on Pink SI.
Show is aired in Kosovo as well. The story is about Şehrazat Evliyaoğlu, a talented architect who works in Binyapı, a construction company owned by Onur Aksal and Kerem İnceoğlu. She is the mother of a five-year old boy who suffers from leukemia and needs an urgent and very expensive surgery. Onur Aksal is a successful businessman and Şehrazat desperately tries to find ways to borrow the money she needs for her son's very costly surgery, a bone marrow transplantation, because her little son's life is in danger. Only her boss Onur, who is secretly attracted to her, accepts to give her the money on condition that she spends one night with him.
Turkish soap opera attracts regional audience
Currently Binbir Gece is being shown on one of Greece’s biggest TV networks, Ant1, and at prime time, 9 p.m.
The new Turkish mania has become so widespread in Greece that even in the first day of football's World Cup Binbir Gece captured 30.5 percent of viewers while the match between Uruguay and France caught just 28.2 percent. It is the first time that a soap beat the ratings of a soccer match in Greece.
The two leading actors of Binbir Gece plan to visit the Greek island of Santorini for their summer holiday, reported Espresso, a Greek daily. Last month, the two leading actors were on the front pages of the two most prominent gossip magazines of Greece.
Binbir Gece is also the talk of the town among Greeks who try to overcome the consequences of the financial crisis. “To Vima” leading commentator Kosmas Vidos said in his weekend article that not only the model of soap opera between the two countries is similar but also that Binbir Gece is a good solution for TV networks hit by the crisis.
George Pleios, professor of media at the University of Athens, had a different explanation for soap opera’s success. He said the soap Binbir Gece was not a sign that Greek society realized that the two cultures have a lot in common.
“I think the success of this soap opera shows the growing fear and compassion that the Greek media as well as the society have for the Turkish government and Turkish society,” said Pleios.
“For the Greek public and the media, Turkey is tough to deal with in foreign relations and is full of emotion,” he said. “This emotional aspect is what differentiates Turkey from Europe. Greece has always wanted to be European, even though it has had more in common with non-European societies.
“As a result of Turkey’s leading position in the region, this dichotomy is what leads to the Greek public watching Turkish soap operas to replace the loss of Greek identity in the international arena,” Pleios said.
The Bulgarian Nova Televizia channel broke the record for viewer numbers when it started broadcasting the Turkish soap opera "Binbir Gece." The channel then decided to broadcast another Turkish show, "Dudaktan Kalbe."
Executives at Nova Televizia believe the success of the Turkish programs in Bulgaria is due to similarities in the social culture and lifestyle of the two countries.
In Serbia, soap operas have had a faithful audience since the 1990s. Until just recently, 1,001 Nights, aired on weekdays in primetime on Prva Srpska TV and reigned supreme.
Its run ended on December 10th. After broadcasting the final episode, Korel and Ergenc were guests in the TV studio, where audience members waved banners and had a chance to meet them.
When the Turkish stars took a stroll in downtown Belgrade, fans were surprised and delighted.
Certain travel agencies, determined to cash in on the show's popularity, are offering trips to Turkey dubbed Down Shahrazad's paths.
On Prva Srpska's website, viewers seem to have a real connection with the programme. "Beautiful Onur. The show is great! I hope Onur will finally find happiness," writes a woman named Ivana.
Author Zoran Kesic hosts of one of the most popular talk shows in Serbia, "The Closing Time Republic", which airs on the same channel as 1,001 Nights did. "People get into soaps because they deal with simple, everyday topics and problems that everyone can understand. People are attracted to tales of heartache, deception and betrayal,"
Turkologist Jana Jelyazkova said Bulgarians had different opinions about Turkish people before watching Turkish TV series but that “they have now seen the truth.”
The documentary argues that Turkish TV series have affected Bulgarians’ domestic relations and even name traditions. There are reports that newborn babies were given the names of characters from the series and that Bulgarians’ travel destinations had even changed as well.
“The number of Bulgarian tourists traveling to Turkey has increased by 40 percent. They want to visit the places where TV series are made,” Jelyazkova said.
Turkish soap operas continue to rule the roost of programming in Balkans, with more on the way.
Retailers, tour operators and language schools are cashing in on Croatia's obsession with the romantic affair between gorgeous architect Scheherazade and her boss, Onur. The two protagonists have the nation glued to their TV sets every night of the week at 8pm.
Zagreb school of foreign languages "Sjajna zvijezda" has registered a large interest in the Turkish language. In the last week or two, 50 people signed up to learn; demand has never been so high.
"Our new clients are mainly young women below 30 who are not afraid to admit being motivated by their favourite the TV series. They come having picked up a few words from the show, like "merhaba" (good day) or "iyi geceler" (good evening)," says the school's director Jasmin Selihovic.
And the Kompas travel agency said that the charter flight from Split to Istanbul on 7th of October has been sold out partly thanks to the popularity of the soap.
30 December 2010
http://www.balkanchronicle.com/index...ies&Itemid=415
This article is from an Austrian newspaper and they present the situation with the words like "Ottoman Television Runs Like Clockwork" as expected cuz Germans and French too, prefers to see it that way;
Der Standard: Turkish Soap Operas Emerge as Geopolitical Instrument
Turkish soap operas have conquered the Balkans reversing Turkey's negative image with the Balkan nations from the time of the Ottoman yoke, according to Austrian paper Der Standard.
Turkey's film industry is not only making money from the showing of its soaps in Balkan countries such as Bulgaria and Greece, where those have acquired immense popularity, but it is also helping out the Turkish diplomacy, the newspaper says in an article entitled "Ottoman Television Runs Like Clockwork."
"From Durankulak on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast to Patras in western Greece, of Van in southeastern Turkey to Pristina in Kosovo" the households are occupied with the Turkish TV series every night, the report states.
The paper cites a Greek psychologist as saying that the Turkish soap operas use well-known models – they focus on the head of the family but also feature tangled love affairs, often showing poor but talanted young girls falling in love with their boss.
The article points out that the Turkish soaps emerge to be in accordance with the zero-problem with neighbors policy of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, which many analysts already describe as "neo-Ottomanism".
The paper argues, however, that the soap operas are actually helpful in making Balkan nations shake off their negative stereotypes for Turkey with many Bulgarians rushing to visit Turkey as tourists in order to see the houses of their favorate characters.
"The religion, the old tensions between Muslim and Christian life are irrelevant. "We have noticed that their culture and are very close to each other. This may explain the success," the article cites Maia, a Bulgarian student of Turkish studies, as saying.
Der Standard points out that the main message of the Turkish soaps is to cherish the family and not to throw away family values.
January 5, 2011
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=123836
Turkish soap operas have conquered the Balkans reversing Turkey's negative image with the Balkan nations from the time of the Ottoman yoke, according to Austrian paper Der Standard.
Turkey's film industry is not only making money from the showing of its soaps in Balkan countries such as Bulgaria and Greece, where those have acquired immense popularity, but it is also helping out the Turkish diplomacy, the newspaper says in an article entitled "Ottoman Television Runs Like Clockwork."
"From Durankulak on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast to Patras in western Greece, of Van in southeastern Turkey to Pristina in Kosovo" the households are occupied with the Turkish TV series every night, the report states.
The paper cites a Greek psychologist as saying that the Turkish soap operas use well-known models – they focus on the head of the family but also feature tangled love affairs, often showing poor but talanted young girls falling in love with their boss.
The article points out that the Turkish soaps emerge to be in accordance with the zero-problem with neighbors policy of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, which many analysts already describe as "neo-Ottomanism".
The paper argues, however, that the soap operas are actually helpful in making Balkan nations shake off their negative stereotypes for Turkey with many Bulgarians rushing to visit Turkey as tourists in order to see the houses of their favorate characters.
"The religion, the old tensions between Muslim and Christian life are irrelevant. "We have noticed that their culture and are very close to each other. This may explain the success," the article cites Maia, a Bulgarian student of Turkish studies, as saying.
Der Standard points out that the main message of the Turkish soaps is to cherish the family and not to throw away family values.
January 5, 2011
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=123836
This New York Times article talks about the changes in daily life of Arab people because of Turkish soap operas. Isn't it weird for an American newspaper to have an article about Turkish series gaining popularity in Arab world???;
Turks Put Twist in Racy Soaps
From left, Kivanc Tatlitug, Selcuk Yontem and Beren Saat in a scene from “Ask-i Memnu,” the top-rated series in Turkey
A topless hunk lights candles in the bedroom. A woman appears in the doorway.
“Come on, let’s not be late,” she begs him, although her dark brown eyes say something different.
They kiss. He lets down her hair and there’s a flash of his wedding ring as they move toward the bed. A spaghetti strap slips off her naked shoulder.
Just another day at the office for the stars of “Gumus,” the Turkish soap opera that during its two-year run here on Kanal D has offered Turks not only the daytime-television miracle of sexual foreplay, but the standard sudsy compendium of shotgun weddings, kidnappings, car accidents and crazy plot twists like the one when the dead girlfriend of the aforementioned married dreamboat turns out to be alive and the mother of his illegitimate baby.
Usual stuff to American aficionados of the genre. But Turkish television has given the soap a fresh twist by making the connivers, kidnappers and canoodlers Muslims. And it is Arab audiences, even more than Turks, who have been swept off their feet.
Led by “Gumus” (“Noor” in Arabic), a wave of Turkish melodramas, police procedurals and conspiracy thrillers — “Yaprak Dokumu,” “Kurtlar Vadisi,” “Asmali Konak,” “Ihlamurlar Altinda” and now the steamy “Ask-i Memnu,” the top-rated series in Turkey (think Madame Bovary on the Bosporus) — are making their way onto Arab televisions, wielding a kind of soft power.
Through the small screen, Turkey has begun to exercise a big influence at Arab dinner tables, in boardrooms and bedrooms from Morocco to Iraq of a sort that the United States can only dream about. Turkey’s cultural exports, not coincidentally, have also advanced its political ambitions as it asserts itself on that front, too, sending a flotilla to Gaza, defying the United States over sanctions on Iran, talking tough to its onetime ally, Israel, and giving Kemal Ataturk’s constitutionally secular state an Islamic tinge.
Politics and culture go hand in hand, here as elsewhere. If most Arabs watch Turkish shows to ogle beautiful people in exotic locales, Arab women have also made clear their particular admiration for the rags-to-riches story of the title character in “Noor,” a strong, business-savvy woman with a doting husband named Muhannad. Dr. Shafira Alghamdi, a Saudi pediatrician, was on vacation here the other day, shopping with two Saudi friends, and volunteered how Arab husbands often ignore their wives, while on “Noor,” within what remains to Arabs a familiar context of arranged marriages, respect for elders and big families living together, Noor and Muhannad openly love and admire each other.
“A lot of Saudi men have gotten seriously jealous of Muhannad because their wives say, ‘Why can’t you be more like him?’ ” Dr. Alghamdi said. Meanwhile, she was illustrating another consequence of the show: the sudden, spectacular boom in Arab tourism to Turkey. Millions of Arabs now flock here. Turkish Airlines has started direct flights to gulf countries (using soap stars as spokespeople). Turkish travel companies charter boats to ferry Arabs who want a glimpse of the waterfront villa where “Noor” was filmed. The owner recently put the house on the market for $50 million. Until lately he charged $60 for a tour, more than four times the price of a ticket to the Topkapi Palace.
Even fatwas by Saudi clerics calling for the murder of the soap’s distributors haven’t discouraged a store in Gaza City from hawking knockoffs of Noor’s sleeveless dresses (long-sleeved leotards included, to preserve feminine modesty). A recent cartoon in a Saudi newspaper showed a homely Saudi man visiting a plastic surgeon, toting a picture of Noor’s husband, who is played by Kivanc Tatlitug, a blue-eyed former basketball player turned model turned actor who also plays the philandering Adonis in “Ask-i-Memnu.” The man in the cartoon asks the surgeon if he can get Mr. Tatlitug’s stubbled good looks.
“Arab men say they don’t watch these shows but they watch,” said Arzum Damar, who works for Barracuda Tours in Istanbul and was in her office, where a television broadcast Mr. Tatlitug silently demonstrating how to tango before a daytime studio audience of half-faint women. “The men like to see the fancy houses. The women like to look at him.” It’s true. A Hamas leader not long ago was describing to a reporter plans by his government to start a network of Shariah-compliant TV entertainment when his teenage son arrived, complaining about Western music and his sister’s taste for the Turkish soap operas. Then the son’s cellphone rang. The ring tone was the theme song from “Noor.”
If this seems like a triumph of Western values by proxy, the Muslim context remains the crucial bridge. “Ultimately, it’s all about local culture,” said Irfan Sahin, the chief executive of Dogan TV Holding, Turkey’s largest media company, which owns Kanal D. “People respond to what’s familiar.” By which he meant that regionalism, not globalism, sells, as demonstrated by the finale of “Noor” last summer on MBC, the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based, pan-Arab network that bought rebroadcast rights from Mr. Sahin. A record 85 million Arab viewers tuned in.
That said, during the last 20 years or so Turkey has ingested so much American culture that it has experienced a sexual revolution that most of the Arab world hasn’t, which accounts for why “Noor” triumphed in the Middle East but was considered too tame for most Turks. Even Mr. Sahin wonders, by contrast, whether the racier “Ask-i Memnu,” a smash with young Turks, threatens to offend Arabs unless it is heavily edited.
“You have to understand that there are people still living even in this city who say they only learned how to kiss or learned there is kissing involved in lovemaking by watching ‘Noor,’ ” explained Sengul Ozerkan, a professor of television here who conducts surveys of such things. “So you can imagine why the impact of that show was so great in the Arab world and why ‘Ask-i Memnu’ may be too much.
“But then, Turkey always acts like a kind of intermediary between the West and the Middle East,” she added.
Ali Demirhan is a Turkish construction executive whose company in Dubai plans to help stage the next Turkish Emmys there. One recent morning he was at a sunny cafe in a mall here recalling a Turkish colleague who had just closed a deal with a Qatari sheik by rustling up three Turkish soap stars the sheik wanted to meet.
Mr. Demirhan sipped Turkish coffee while Arabs shopped nearby. “In the same way American culture changed our society, we’re changing Arab society,” he said, then paused for dramatic effect. “If America wants to make peace with the Middle East today, it must first make peace with Turkey.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/arts/18abroad.html
From left, Kivanc Tatlitug, Selcuk Yontem and Beren Saat in a scene from “Ask-i Memnu,” the top-rated series in Turkey
A topless hunk lights candles in the bedroom. A woman appears in the doorway.
“Come on, let’s not be late,” she begs him, although her dark brown eyes say something different.
They kiss. He lets down her hair and there’s a flash of his wedding ring as they move toward the bed. A spaghetti strap slips off her naked shoulder.
Just another day at the office for the stars of “Gumus,” the Turkish soap opera that during its two-year run here on Kanal D has offered Turks not only the daytime-television miracle of sexual foreplay, but the standard sudsy compendium of shotgun weddings, kidnappings, car accidents and crazy plot twists like the one when the dead girlfriend of the aforementioned married dreamboat turns out to be alive and the mother of his illegitimate baby.
Usual stuff to American aficionados of the genre. But Turkish television has given the soap a fresh twist by making the connivers, kidnappers and canoodlers Muslims. And it is Arab audiences, even more than Turks, who have been swept off their feet.
Led by “Gumus” (“Noor” in Arabic), a wave of Turkish melodramas, police procedurals and conspiracy thrillers — “Yaprak Dokumu,” “Kurtlar Vadisi,” “Asmali Konak,” “Ihlamurlar Altinda” and now the steamy “Ask-i Memnu,” the top-rated series in Turkey (think Madame Bovary on the Bosporus) — are making their way onto Arab televisions, wielding a kind of soft power.
Through the small screen, Turkey has begun to exercise a big influence at Arab dinner tables, in boardrooms and bedrooms from Morocco to Iraq of a sort that the United States can only dream about. Turkey’s cultural exports, not coincidentally, have also advanced its political ambitions as it asserts itself on that front, too, sending a flotilla to Gaza, defying the United States over sanctions on Iran, talking tough to its onetime ally, Israel, and giving Kemal Ataturk’s constitutionally secular state an Islamic tinge.
Politics and culture go hand in hand, here as elsewhere. If most Arabs watch Turkish shows to ogle beautiful people in exotic locales, Arab women have also made clear their particular admiration for the rags-to-riches story of the title character in “Noor,” a strong, business-savvy woman with a doting husband named Muhannad. Dr. Shafira Alghamdi, a Saudi pediatrician, was on vacation here the other day, shopping with two Saudi friends, and volunteered how Arab husbands often ignore their wives, while on “Noor,” within what remains to Arabs a familiar context of arranged marriages, respect for elders and big families living together, Noor and Muhannad openly love and admire each other.
“A lot of Saudi men have gotten seriously jealous of Muhannad because their wives say, ‘Why can’t you be more like him?’ ” Dr. Alghamdi said. Meanwhile, she was illustrating another consequence of the show: the sudden, spectacular boom in Arab tourism to Turkey. Millions of Arabs now flock here. Turkish Airlines has started direct flights to gulf countries (using soap stars as spokespeople). Turkish travel companies charter boats to ferry Arabs who want a glimpse of the waterfront villa where “Noor” was filmed. The owner recently put the house on the market for $50 million. Until lately he charged $60 for a tour, more than four times the price of a ticket to the Topkapi Palace.
Even fatwas by Saudi clerics calling for the murder of the soap’s distributors haven’t discouraged a store in Gaza City from hawking knockoffs of Noor’s sleeveless dresses (long-sleeved leotards included, to preserve feminine modesty). A recent cartoon in a Saudi newspaper showed a homely Saudi man visiting a plastic surgeon, toting a picture of Noor’s husband, who is played by Kivanc Tatlitug, a blue-eyed former basketball player turned model turned actor who also plays the philandering Adonis in “Ask-i-Memnu.” The man in the cartoon asks the surgeon if he can get Mr. Tatlitug’s stubbled good looks.
“Arab men say they don’t watch these shows but they watch,” said Arzum Damar, who works for Barracuda Tours in Istanbul and was in her office, where a television broadcast Mr. Tatlitug silently demonstrating how to tango before a daytime studio audience of half-faint women. “The men like to see the fancy houses. The women like to look at him.” It’s true. A Hamas leader not long ago was describing to a reporter plans by his government to start a network of Shariah-compliant TV entertainment when his teenage son arrived, complaining about Western music and his sister’s taste for the Turkish soap operas. Then the son’s cellphone rang. The ring tone was the theme song from “Noor.”
If this seems like a triumph of Western values by proxy, the Muslim context remains the crucial bridge. “Ultimately, it’s all about local culture,” said Irfan Sahin, the chief executive of Dogan TV Holding, Turkey’s largest media company, which owns Kanal D. “People respond to what’s familiar.” By which he meant that regionalism, not globalism, sells, as demonstrated by the finale of “Noor” last summer on MBC, the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based, pan-Arab network that bought rebroadcast rights from Mr. Sahin. A record 85 million Arab viewers tuned in.
That said, during the last 20 years or so Turkey has ingested so much American culture that it has experienced a sexual revolution that most of the Arab world hasn’t, which accounts for why “Noor” triumphed in the Middle East but was considered too tame for most Turks. Even Mr. Sahin wonders, by contrast, whether the racier “Ask-i Memnu,” a smash with young Turks, threatens to offend Arabs unless it is heavily edited.
“You have to understand that there are people still living even in this city who say they only learned how to kiss or learned there is kissing involved in lovemaking by watching ‘Noor,’ ” explained Sengul Ozerkan, a professor of television here who conducts surveys of such things. “So you can imagine why the impact of that show was so great in the Arab world and why ‘Ask-i Memnu’ may be too much.
“But then, Turkey always acts like a kind of intermediary between the West and the Middle East,” she added.
Ali Demirhan is a Turkish construction executive whose company in Dubai plans to help stage the next Turkish Emmys there. One recent morning he was at a sunny cafe in a mall here recalling a Turkish colleague who had just closed a deal with a Qatari sheik by rustling up three Turkish soap stars the sheik wanted to meet.
Mr. Demirhan sipped Turkish coffee while Arabs shopped nearby. “In the same way American culture changed our society, we’re changing Arab society,” he said, then paused for dramatic effect. “If America wants to make peace with the Middle East today, it must first make peace with Turkey.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/arts/18abroad.html
This video is hilarious
I knew that these series are being aired in Arab world with heavy editing and censorship but despite that, it says that Arab clerics wanted death penalty for broadcasters of Turkish series in their country and it would be permissible to kill them on sight!!!YouTube - Arab world is transfixed by Turkish soap operas
It looks like Turkish series are so popular as well as hated by both in Balkans and Arab world.
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