PM continues to slam TV serial on Ottomans
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues his criticism on Muhteşem Yüzyıl, a popular TV show that reaches more than 150 million people in 76 countries. AA photo
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s harsh criticism of the hit Turkish TV soap opera “Muhteşem Yüzyıl” (The Magnificent Century) for its portrayal of the Ottoman ruler Süleyman the Magnificent and his harem life continued yesterday in a conference on innovation in Turkey.“Some people claim that our history is nothing but wars, swords, machinations, strife and, unfortunately, harems. We will not see our history in that way despite some, who are not among us, intentionally trying to reflect it in that way,” Erdoğan said yesterday at the opening ceremony of “Innovation Week” in Istanbul.
The sharpest point of Erdoğan’s speech concerned the Byzantium Ladies “who celebrated Fatih Sultan Mehmet’s conquest of Istanbul in 1453.”
According to Erdoğan, the Ladies of Byzantium said “We desire to see the Ottoman [male] turban instead of a Cardinal’s conical hat to lead us,” when Fatih Sultan Mehmet’s armies captured Istanbul, known as Constantinople at time. “Because one of them represented justice and the other cruelty,” Erdoğan explained.
The Magnificient Century follows the lives of the Ottoman ruler Süleyman and his love for Hürrem Sultan. The show focuses more on Süleyman’s personal and palace life, portraying characters from the harem as well as the royal family.
“Those who toy with these values should be taught a lesson within the premises of the law,” Erdoğan said. Similarly, a tourism professional in the Central Anatolian province of Konya had lodged a complaint Nov. 30 at the local prosecutor’s office about the TV series, claiming that it “makes fun of historical values,” following Erdoğan’s scolding.
The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) is laying the groundwork for a law proposing a ban of the serial, according to a report by the daily Hürriyet.
The AKP’s Istanbul deputy Oktay Saral said, “The new law aims to forbid humiliation of historical figures or perversion of real facts.” The proposal covers fiction as well.
‘TURKS ARE INNOVATIVE’
Turkey does not have enough natural resources like petrol, gold or natural gas, but it is at an advantage in the long run as it has a young, dynamic, productive and smart population, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday at the opening ceremony of Innovation Week.
“As the world population is aging, Turkey stands in a much more advantageous point with its dynamic and young population. The secret of success is not labor or capital or something else. Its human, if I must define it with one word,” Erdoğan said.
According to Erdoğan, “Turkish people were forced to feel an inferiority complex by foreign countries,” and Turkey’s own leaders once tried to cooperate with them.