Star from ‘immoral’ series steals show

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

‘Nur’ star Songül Öden is seen with other Turkish actor Cansel Elçin at the forum. Hürriyet photo

Many Arabs view Turkish TV series as “immoral” but cannot stop watching them, according to Arab guests at the Turkish-Arab Media Forum, which brought together around 200 journalists from the region in Istanbul earlier this week.

Turkish TV series are “evil” but impossible to avoid, said Professor Moncef Ayari, a Tunisian communications specialist. “We criticize the Turkish TV series but at the same time we watch them with interest.”

“We thought Turkey would have strict moral values and we would not see things like relations out of wedlock,” said Daniel Abdulfettah, a speaker from the United Arab Emirates. “However, we saw in the TV series ‘Gümüş’ [titled ‘Nur’ in Arab countries] that extramarital relations do exist in Turkey, and we were very surprised to see that.”

Abdulfettah said such events also happened in the Arab countries but added that it was taboo to speak about the matter.

Hamoud al-Touqi, the editor-in-chief of the Al Waha Magazine in Oman, said Turkish TV series had entered Arab homes “without permission” before becoming permanent houseguests.
“You can’t find anybody on the streets when ‘Nur’ is on TV,” al-Touqi said.

Turkish TV series have become highly popular in Arab countries over the last five years.