{"id":61820,"date":"2012-12-27T15:14:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-27T13:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=61820"},"modified":"2023-07-26T11:45:55","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T08:45:55","slug":"why-is-turkeys-prime-minister-at-war-with-a-soap-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2012\/12\/27\/why-is-turkeys-prime-minister-at-war-with-a-soap-opera\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Turkey\u2019s Prime Minister at War with a Soap Opera?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/div>
Murad Sezer \/ Reuters<\/small><\/p>\n

An egg-stained and damaged billboard advertising the Turkish soap opera Magnificent Century<\/i> in Istanbul on Jan. 9, 2011, following a pro-Islamist protest against the popular TV series<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Crammed with trinkets, eunuchs, wine, giggly harem girls, seduction and intrigue, Magnificent Century<\/em> \u2014 a Turkish soap opera based on the life and reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the 16th\u00a0century Ottoman sultan \u2014 might at times appear gaudy, predictable and rife with historical inaccuracies. To the show\u2019s estimated 150 million viewers, spread across Turkey, the Balkans and the Middle East, however, it\u2019s nothing more than good entertainment. To Turkey\u2019s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, though, it\u2019s blasphemy.<\/p>\n

During a speech in late November, Erdogan rained fire and brimstone on the show\u2019s makers. \u201cThat\u2019s not the Suleiman we know,\u201d he said, referring to the depiction of the Ottomans\u2019 great ruler as a drinker and womanizer. \u201cBefore my nation, I condemn both the director of this series and the owner of the television station. We have already alerted the authorities, and we are awaiting a judicial decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

(MORE:<\/strong> Turkish P.M. Erdogan: We Cannot Deny Our Ottoman Past)<\/p>\n

Erdogan has had little reason to complain about the wave of Ottomania that has propelled programs like Magnificent Century<\/em>\u00a0to record ratings. Intent on restoring Turkey\u2019s links with the Balkans and the Middle East, and just as keen to use his country\u2019s newly assertive foreign policy to win votes at home, the Prime Minister has probably done more than anyone else to rekindle Turkish nostalgia for the age of empire. (Critics allege that he likely fancies himself a modern-day sultan.) What Erdogan appears to resent, however, is any interpretation of the Ottoman past that is less than adulatory \u2014 or at odds with Islamic values. A sultan on horseback is fine. A sultan on a bender is not.<\/p>\n

Within days of the Prime Minister\u2019s remarks, Turkish Airlines, the national air carrier, reportedly scratched Suleiman and his dancing girls from all of its in-flight programming. At roughly the same time, Oktay Saral, a lawmaker from Erdogan\u2019s mildly Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), announced that he would table a law banning programs that infringe on \u201cnational values\u201d by \u201cinsulting, denigrating, distorting or misrepresenting\u201d historical personalities and events. (An existing law already prescribes prison terms for those guilty of \u201cdenigrating the Turkish nation.\u201d)\u00a0\u201cMagnificent Century<\/em>\u00a0will be banned from the airwaves in 2013,\u201d\u00a0Saral\u00a0gravely announced.<\/p>\n

To Ihsan Dagi, a columnist at\u00a0Today\u2019s Zaman<\/em>, a newspaper that until recently tended to toe the government\u2019s line, the Turkish leader\u2019s vendetta against\u00a0Magnificent Century<\/em>\u00a0is emblematic. \u201cThe very top of the [ruling] party, Erdogan, acts as if he is entitled to interfere in the lives and choices of the people, as if he is responsible for their choices,\u201d Dagi wrote in a recent article. \u201cThe mandate to rule seems to have been interpreted as a blank check to transform the identities and lifestyles of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fittingly, the day that Dagi\u2019s article appeared, news broke that Turkey\u2019s media watchdog had decided to fine a private channel $30,000 for airing an episode of\u00a0The Simpsons<\/em>\u00a0in which God was depicted as being under the sway of the devil. The program \u201cmade fun of God\u201d and \u201cencouraged young people to drink alcohol on New Year\u2019s Eve,\u201d the Radio and Television Supreme Council said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Erdogan is not the first to express his criticism for\u00a0Magnificent Century<\/em>.\u00a0Since the show first aired two years ago, thousands of Turks \u2014 conservative Muslims and nationalists alike \u2014 have protested its irreverent portrayal of Suleiman. Now, however, the row, while still about values, is also about power \u2014 or, more specifically, about the degree to which Erdogan has begun to rule Turkey by fiat.<\/p>\n

(MORE:<\/strong> Fetih 1453<\/em>: Turkish Epic Revels in Ottoman Past)<\/p>\n

Several years ago, it was still possible to argue, as some did, that it\u2019s not what Erdogan said that mattered, but what his government actually did. Today, the two are slowly becoming indistinguishable. What the Prime Minister says, or thinks, is what goes.<\/p>\n

The chemical reaction that began with Erdogan\u2019s contempt for\u00a0Magnificent Century<\/em>\u00a0and ended in his associates\u2019 bid to pull the plug on the show is just the latest example. Two years ago, during a visit to the eastern province of Kars, the Prime Minister called a local statue to Turkish-Armenian reconciliation a \u201cmonstrosity.\u201d A year later, the statue was torn down. Earlier this year, Erdogan declared that abortion was tantamount to \u201cmurder\u201d and cesarean births were \u201ca procedure to restrict Turkey\u2019s population.\u201d Within a week of the speech, the Health Ministry announced that a regulation placing new curbs on abortion was in the works. (After a public outcry, the draft law was eventually shelved.)<\/p>\n

Protests notwithstanding, Erdogan has also pushed ahead with a number of pet projects, including the construction of a mosque in the middle of Istanbul\u2019s entertainment district and another, a much larger one, on a hilltop overlooking the city. He hasn\u2019t taken kindly to criticism either. Journalists who knock or lampoon the Prime Minister routinely face lawsuits, fines or dismissals \u2014 this in a country that jails more reporters than China and Iran, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.<\/p>\n

Erdogan\u2019s popularity, boosted by a decade of rapid economic growth, shows few signs of abating, however. Having pledged not to run for another term as Prime Minister, Erdogan is now attempting to consolidate his legacy by transforming Turkey into a U.S.-style presidential system. Well short of an absolute majority in parliament and facing resistance from the sitting President himself, he may be facing his toughest challenge to date. Undaunted, the Turkish leader doesn\u2019t shy from suggesting that he has found a perfectly suitable candidate for the 2014 presidential election \u2014 himself.<\/p>\n

\nRead more: <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Murad Sezer \/ Reuters An egg-stained and damaged billboard advertising the Turkish soap opera Magnificent Century in Istanbul on Jan. 9, 2011, following a pro-Islamist protest against the popular TV series Crammed with trinkets, eunuchs, wine, giggly harem girls, seduction and intrigue, Magnificent Century \u2014 a Turkish soap opera based on the life and reign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[7534],"class_list":["post-61820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-magnificent-century"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}