As Turkish dramas gain a greater audience in neighboring countries, complications arise due to broadcasters’ fears of possible reactions from locals, especially in countries with which Turkey has a history of political tension.
Similar fears have affected the airing of the Turkish show “Ezel” in Armenia, although the Turkish TV show is known to enjoy huge popularity throughout the Arab world, particularly in the United Arab Emirates. Armenia’s leading TV channel, Shant TV, has purchased the script rights to the show and produced its own TV series featuring local actors and actresses who are striking for their similarity to their Turkish peers, namely Kenan İmirzalioğlu and Cansu Dere.

Armenian Shant TV’s version of Turkish show ‘Ezel’ features a local actor
(above) who is striking for his similarity to his Turkish peer, Kenan
İmirzalioğlu.
This is the very first Turkish TV show to be broadcast in Armenia, and the first episode reportedly broke ratings records. The reason the producers did not simply purchase the broadcasting rights and save themselves the trouble of producing the show from the scratch was due to fears about the unpredictable nature of the potential audience response to the show’s Turkish origin, reports say. The TV channel’s owners were allegedly hiding the fact that the show was originally a Turkish production because they feared it would not receive a good audience response if the audience was informed of the truth.