ARTICLE
All will see a Turkish Dizi one day!
TÜRKİYE’S TOP EXPORT IS NOT GRAIN, NOT TEXTILES, NOT BORON! TÜRKİYE’S TOP EXPORT IS TELEVISION SERIES! TÜRKİYE IS THE SECOND LARGEST EXPORTER OF TELEVISION SERIES IN THE WORLD AFTER AMERICA. BROADCAST IN 150 COUNTRIES, WATCHED BY MORE THAN 800 MILLION PEOPLE AND EXPECTED TO GENERATE EXPORTS WORTH $1 BILLION IN 2023, TURKISH TV SERIES SHOW THAT EVERYONE WILL WATCH A TURKISH TV SERIES ONE DAY! OYA DOĞAN doganoya@gmail.com
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country that has chosen to be governed as a republic by burying the empire of its past in history... A country that has turned its face to the modern world since the day it was founded and has always tried to integrate with the world... I am talking about Türkiye, which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its foundation this year. I am talking about a country that has a strategic importance between Europe and the Middle East, a country that carries the complexity of being in the middle but can reflect the richness of bridging the worlds apart, in its rich stories... Türkiye is now taking the world by storm. And it is doing so with soft power; with TV series. From Spain to Tanzania, from Japan to Russia, from Chile to Bangladesh, from Italy to America, from Vietnam to Korea, from Brazil to India, Turkish TV series are broadcast in 150 countries on 6 continents. Did you know that the history of Turkish TV series goes only 49 years back. Today, they enchant and inspire viewers, mobilize women and are banned in some countries for doing so.
“AŞK-I MEMNU” WAS THE FIRST TURKISH TV SERIES EVER EXPORTED TO THE WORLD
The very first TV series appeared in the Turkish small screen was “Kaynanalar” which started to be broadcast in 1974. One of the very first sit-coms of the world “Kaynanalar” continued for 32 years! But there was no doubt that drama would be the magic that would take hold of Türkiye and open it up to the global audience. The first drama of Türkiye, “Aşk-ı Memnu” was broadcast in 1975. People would clear streets and were glued to the screen during the hours when the drama was broadcast for the series featured characters in love with the forbidden. After all, “Aşk-ı Memnu” is old Turkish for “forbidden love”. This story dripping with jealousy, intrigue, revenge and wealth was sold to France in 1981. It was the first TV series that Türkiye sold to the world but only a small number of French people could watch it in those years… But 34 years later, when it was remade with different actors, it turned into a phenomenon.
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