Isn´t there any Arab among our members here? I was expecting to hear some comments from them.
It´s been a while since I last checked tutkishclass forum.
Anyways, We heard about the establishing of the turkish alarabiyya channel couple of months ago in the news, and many were anxieously waiting for it. I am Lebanese by the way.
It is true that the arabic world is hooked to turkish TV series now, but not only that. The arabic interest in Turkey rose the last few years. This is not only due to the successful TV series dubbed in arabic but mainly due to the politics of the turkish governement.
I mean by politics not the ´islamic´ side but rather the support that the arabic world is having from turkey regarding the palestinian cause, and in particular for us lebanese the support that the turkish governement gives us concerning the conflict at the lebanese-israeli borders and with the still occupied lebanese land (Shebaa farms).
Turkish UNIFIL troops came to south Lebanon to help keeping the peace on the borders between Lebanon and Israel.
Moreover, turkey´s recent economic/trade collaboration with the arabic world gave the arabs access to more turkish products. So the arabs started to eat turkish, listen to turkish, etc
last month, the visa requirement for lebanese to visit turkey was lifted and vice versa turks can now visit lebanon without a visa.
To go back to the TRT alarabiyya, I unfortunately dont live in lebanon but only visit during summers. Therefore I do not currently have access to it. Hopefully I will get to watch it this summer and will let you know.
Arabs are not only interested in watching turkish TV series, else they would have only watched it on their own channels (example mbc ) .
They are interested in knowing more about turkey, a country that they share a lot with due to 400 years of ottoman rule but also a country with whom they broke the ties after world war.
The arabs were, at that time , happy to get rid of the ottomans with the help of the french and british. The turks considered that the arabs betrayed them the moment they didnt stand by them. This cause hostility to a certain extent between the two people.
The new politics of ahmet davutoglu is creating balance in the middle east; That is why everyone in the arab world is becoming quite interested in turkey.
Again I want to stress the fact that this is not due to the the fact that the ruling party in turkey is islamic, all lebanese, christians and muslims, are now supportive of turkey´s politics in the region. The only few who are against it are the lebanese of armenian origin due to the turkish/armenian issue of course.
I hope that this turkish arabic channel will contribute to strengthen the ties between turks and arabs.
|