Mick Hartley

Some more on Turkey, this time on the battle of the soaps:

Just hours after Ankara snubbed its American allies by trying to block further sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, Turks sat down to witness the latest phase of the struggle for the future of their country: the battle of the soap operas.

The age-old tug of war between Turkey’s western connections and eastern heritage is being played out in living rooms across the country.

Channel D pits Forbidden Love, an adaptation of a popular Turkish novel about love and loss in a wealthy Istanbul family, against Star TV’s Valley of the Wolves Ambush, which is muscular and violent.

Rarely touching on politics, Forbidden Love stars women in skimpy designer dresses who drink champagne and live their lives against a soundtrack of western pop music.

Valley of the Wolves Ambush is based on the character of a former secret agent who now heads a criminal gang. It advocates a strict code of honour and morality. Its star plays an unashamed Turkish ultra-nationalist who espouses a mixture of racial supremacy and Ottoman nostalgia in which Turks are born to be the leaders of the Muslim world.

Despite its leaden acting and paper-thin characterisation, it has become hugely popular, particularly among young, poorly educated males.

Valley of the Wolves has a history in Turkey – Israel diplomacy. Back in January Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon summoned the Turkish ambassador to complain about a storyline in the series where Israeli secret agents kidnapped babies to convert them to Judaism. The hapless ambassador was seated at a lower level: an action seen by the Turks (no doubt correctly) as a deliberate humiliation, and one of the key moments in the recent downturn in relations between the two countries.

The 2006 film Valley of the Wolves Iraq, an offshoot of the series and the most expensive film ever made in Turkey, went on to be a major box-office hit and was described by the Wall Street Journal as "a cross between 'American Psycho' in uniform and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and by Turkey's parliamentary speaker Bulent Arinc as "absolutely magnificent". Among other delights it featured Gary Busey in the role of a Jewish-American doctor who removed organs from injured civilian prisoners to sell to the wealthy in New York, London and Tel Aviv for transplants.

Nor are matters about to improve: 

The producers of Valley of the Wolves Ambush are beginning work on an episode in which their hero will avenge the deaths on board the Mavi Marmara by killing Israelis.