Turkish “Drama” … Its First Victims are Arab Teenagers, and the Last victim is the Turkish President

Turkish "Drama" ...

Its First Victims are Arab Teenagers, and the Last victim is the Turkish President

The Turks paved their way into infiltrating their ideas into the subconscious mind of the Arab individual and then tried to control his thoughts through favorable lighting and glamorous makeup, adding in few beach scenes found in old Arab and foreign films, for the sake of art—they said—and not with political intentions, of course. Turkish producers were able to devise another method of injecting politics into Arab and Islamic societal customs, particularly in the societies of the Arab Gulf, through “art”—especially the art of the series. The melodrama “Muhannad” was nothing more than a sword to cut modesty and protective jealousy out of their roots and to indulge the Arab viewer in a maze of excessive sentimentalism and distract their minds. Prior to that, it also aimed at slaughtering the eternal message of art that Malraux referred to in 1901—that art merely provides humans with a true sense of greatness that they have long ignored in themselves. 

Even if dramas are part of the consciousness and freedom advocated by art, the Turkish series, dubbed in Arabic, has a final goal of obscuration and acquisition, by depicting Turkish society as a hunk of soft romance, while broadcasting scenes of the most beautiful landscapes in the country. Let romanticism and the invitation to tourism unite in painting the beauty of the Turkish spirit, as a stage within the stages of improving the Turkish image and beautifying it through an unexpected door that even the most powerful political analysts and art critics fail to notice, all while bypassing the language barrier through Arabic dubbing, in addition to portraying the Turkish society in an idealistic light.

If it is, in fact, true what is said about dubbed Turkish series being offered to Arab channels for free in the beginning, and even the political artistic product bearing the cost of its direct transmission and dubbed in the Arabic language, then one is forced to stop and ask bitterly: Who was behind this “leak”?

If these drama series succeeded in attracting high numbers of Arab followers because of its foreign atmosphere and scenarios that evoked surprise and suspense, and also because it was able to elicit the sympathy of the Arab viewer for Turkish personal issues. This was the end-goal of the Turkish drama, after which, the presence of Arab investment in real estate in Istanbul, Ankara, Trabzon, and other cities increased substantially, and even the destination of Arab tourists was moved to the Anatolian mountains and Istanbul miniatures, along with its dirty bars and streets which always lead to the circle of politics. The majority of its victims were teenagers—the fact of which was noticed by the Jealous Arabs from among the pioneers who began to notice the political and social ideals being propagated by the Turkish drama game; they pointed out the goal that was hidden underneath the folds of the Turkish scenery and its luxurious décor, with its lavish “makeup,” which was made to present a pure and innocent political image of Turkey, a picture which was far from the reality.

Turkish art sought to pave the road with a "pitch" for the development of political tourism.

Dubbed Turkish series were expensive, like any other dubbed series in the history of art, because they were an attractive alternative to subtitled translated films; their great similarity with the origin of the series helped them, and it was easier to rely on hearing than reading. Natural scenes and sites in Turkey—those works of art which are not lacking in elements of suspense and attraction—were able to enter the Arab hearts, thus creating an emotional Arab public opinion in support of the strange Turkish case, after emptying the Arab mind of the origins of its thoughts and ideologies by means of art and filling it, instead, with Turkish propaganda.

Furthermore, the other part of Turkish drama, which is the “historical” drama, finds a wide difference between it and Arab drama; Arab drama aims at providing the viewer with cultural and artistic material for the purpose of fun and entertainment firstly. 

Secondly for moral benefit, and thirdly, it is based on a mostly agreed upon historical information base of Arab and Islamic history. As for the Turkish drama, which was translated and dubbed into Arabic with the voices of Arab characters, including but not limited to: “The Sultan’s Hareem,” “Ertugrul Resurrection” series, “Ottoman Resurrection,” “The Governor,” and many others, it relied heavily on mega directing, impressive scenes, and strong language content—a way to serve the Turkish policy of restoring the Ottoman Empire, at which the Turkish officials sometimes hinted, while sometimes declared it frankly and brashly.

They forged the history with millions of dollars in order to return Ottomanism to the limelight.

With that being said, all this expensive production that could very well be done without—its goal is not to compete with the role of Western production and to emulate its shows, but rather to glorify the alleged Ottoman “caliphate” and polish the image of its sultans and to replenish the Ottoman character among the Turkish people by reviving the abhorrent racism in the souls of Turkish people towards the other and giving the Turkish ruler the status of a protector and the preserver of the pillars of the Ottoman “caliphate” and the legal heir to it. Twenty years ago, Turkish drama penetrated the mindset of Arab teenagers, and it began running them with a remote control, so that when they grew up, they would become a supporting voice for the Turkish rule. 

Various Arab intellectuals and researchers who were shaped by Turkish drama tended to support and endorse the false information that it broadcasted and marketed with political skill, according to a programmed approach that may, in fact, reach the level of intelligence programming. There is an Arab researcher at an Arab Islamic university who is known for his scientific thesis in which he described Turkish character Ertugrul as being his first grandfather, the conqueror, and that Ertugrul’s grandfather Fakhr al-Din Pasha is the last defender of the honor of Medina, and he went on to describe the Ottomans and their ancestors as being honest and the righteous ones of humanity, as well as being the wise men of the nation.

Contemplation of the Turkish political situation can say with ease and spontaneity that the magic has turned against the magician, and Mr. Recep Erdogan has become, without his knowledge, one of the heroes of the dubbed Turkish series and their victims, as he covers his character with dazzling artistic direction and buys his appearance with the misery of Turkish people, in a last desperate attempt. Instead of building modern Turkish history, he has returned to the Ottoman history to obscure the facts and conceal secularism in the features of his political face, pretending Islamism, in a very long series which will inevitably end with the death scene of the director and the hero for which the Turkish people began writing the script, by showing their anger at the economic and political reality.

1. Muhammad Marawan Muhammad Othmanli, Turkish drama trends and influencing methods – the historical series Ertugrul Resurrection as a model, (Amman, Jordan, Department of Da`wah and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Dawa and Fundamentals of Religion at the International Islamic Sciences University, 2018). 

2. Saleh bin Ahmed al-Shami, the function and purpose of art, (Al-Aluka network website: https://www.alukah.net/literature_language/0/86322/, date of visit: 2/20/1441 AH).