It was not just a deceitful plan that the “New Ottomans” prepared to fill the world’s satellites with the false history of the Ottoman Turkey. It was an expansionary plan to establish the Ottoman Sultanate again in the consciousness of the recipients and to build an alienated generation that incorporate the Turkish culture as well as defend it, as if they were some of its people, even perhaps more. 

In the past 20 years that is the age of the ruling Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara, the Turkish drama has been transformed from a traditional television production to a production that is (directed, systematic and conveying intensive messages). These all aim at building a soft path in parallel to the rough path of the Turkish politics in order to rewrite history according to the Ottoman point of view, not as the available facts. Their aim is to transform recipients to be “Turks” in an Arab, Pakistani, Malawian, Somali and Nigerian languages .. etc.

Like what was done by Selim I when he occupied the Arab world as a result of his defeats in Eastern Europe, the same was done by the New Ottomans, under the leadership of Erdogan. As they poached a huge number of intellectuals, media professionals and Arab celebrities to be a bridge for the Turks towards their Arab and Islamic societies, and to be a forefront for the new Ottoman colonial project.

Drama was not the only Turkish soft power, as the new Ottomans used several paths. Among the most important paths are tourism and the transformation of Turkish cities into an international leisure center. Turkish aviation was an important bridge as Istanbul became a meeting point for airlines and travel around the world.

In addition, the ownership and the issuance of passports are relaying on the investment and the purchase of real estates targeted at Arabs, particularly Gulf people. These are also soft paths through which Istanbul was able to link the targeted people with the “Turkish” lands, and to believe in it and its ambitions; even if they were illegal.

Back to the drama that also established its impact on several factors. The first of them is the visual glamour; the romantic influence, especially what is related to Islamic dreams; rooting the notion of “caliphate” and caliphs; and infusing their characters with strength and cunning, and transforming them into legendary characters. Though the Ottoman expansions were for political purposes and personal dreams of the Sultans, the drama portrayed them as a defense for Islamic issues. As these all aimed at creating a broad collective effect.

The success achieved by the Turkish series drew the attention of the Turkish presidency and prompted it to embrace the project and support it. This is so much so that Erdogan visited the scenes of photography and met the famous actors. that was not as a belief in the art and arts so much as that was as an army of actors occupying minds to pave the way for the actual occupation. this is what we see today in northern Syria, Libya and Somalia.

The influence of Turkish drama in its Arab and Islamic surroundings is apparent and direct in its employment to build an unreal image for the Ottoman State and its historical symbols, and to market the notion of the so-called “caliphate” again into the conscience of the recipients. Any observer notes, without question, how Turkish dramatists deliberately ignored and modified some historical facts; especially in regard to the sultans’ conflict for rule and the crimes of palaces and the Haramlek. This was as an attempt to rebuild their historical mental image, despite their crimes against peoples and minorities, especially Arab, Armenian and European peoples.

In a report published by a Saudi newspaper under the title: (Turkish Drama). It revealed in that report the time line of Turkish drama and how it infiltrated into the Arab mind starting from the year (2007) through “The Rose Wreath,” series, which was the first Turkish series dubbed in Arabic. Further, it pointed out that before this date there had been no significant presence of this type of Turkish drama. The success achieved by that romantic series served to be a starting point in attracting the attention of Arab viewers to follow such a kind of non-Arab drama works, which later spread in a record time like an “Epidemic”. Because of some Gulf and Arab satellite channels rushed to present further Turkish series, regardless of the nature of their content that were full of a cultural flow different from the nature of Arab societies in terms of the prevailing customs, traditions and social culture. The report revealed how Turkish series deliberately presented open-minded scenarios and scenes of romantic relationships, pregnancy outside of marriage, marital infidelities and incest. In addition to a lot of other negative behaviors that are consistent with the nature of the classes of secular society in Turkey.

Also, there is another path through which the Turkish institution deliberately accelerated the influence and conveyed its dramatic message through the dubbing of Turkish series into Arabic and Islamic languages and dialects, for instance – Urdu. This led some Muslim peoples to believe in the Turkish view about its Sultans and their lives.

Another thing that the Turks published and succeeded in doing so, was the portrayal of their country as a civilized and developed country that has a growing economy through the visual glamour, and the selected views and footage, which was not a spontaneous behavior. As there were those who used those messages for a comparison to the development in the Arab world, particularly in the countries that are quarreled with and set as an enemy by Turkey. The dramas that dealt with the history of the Ottomans attempted to falsify the facts and replace them with fabricated ideas and stories in order to present the Ottomans as an image of faithful nobles. In contrast, they were murderers that killed, displaced, and enslaved millions of the afflicted peoples who were destined to fall under Ottoman occupation for centuries.