Pakistan, Turkey mull joint TV series: Turk Lala

ISLAMABAD

Pakistan and Turkey are considering working on a joint project to produce a TV series, according to an official statement issued by Pakistani premier’s office.

Prime Minister Imran Khan discussed the proposal with Turkish director Kemal Tekden and his team, who met with Khan at his office in Islamabad.

Tekden, who directed the popular Turkish TV series Resurrection: Ertuğrul, arrived in Pakistan on a five-day visit.
Khan welcomed the team and praised their work for producing the historic Ertuğrul series, according to the statement.
The two sides also discussed the proposed joint TV series dubbed “Turk Lala,” which is to highlight the role played by Muslims of the sub-continent during the Balkan War.

Lala, in the Pashto language, refers to “elder brother,” and the series would highlight the role of Muslims from the sub-continent who went to Turkey in 1920 and fought against the imperialist forces.

Most of the Muslims who helped the Turkish side travelled from present-day Pakistan under the Khilafat Movement flag, a campaign to support the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.

Turkey and Pakistan enjoy historic relations thanks to the help extended during Turkey’s War of Liberation.
The meeting was also attended by Information Minister Senator Shibli Faraz, Kashmir Committee Chairman Shehryar Afridi and leading actors from the Turkish and Pakistani film industries.

Afridi briefed the premier on the proposed series and said Turk Lala played an important role in the Khilafat Movement.
He was referring Abdur Rehman Peshawari, who held the distinction of becoming one of the very first reporters of Anadolu Agency when it was founded in the early 1920s.

Born in 1886 in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, to the wealthy Samdani family, Peshawari abandoned his studies to join the people’s mission to help Turkey during the Balkan war