Ottoman

“Ottoman”

The author Elif Batuman is a Turkish-American writer from New Jersey. She graduated from Harvard College and a PhD from Stanford University. She is known from her first published book “The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them and she has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2010. 

Elif Batuman spent three years as writer in residence at Koç University in Istanbul from 2010 to 2013.  The article “Ottomania” has been published on the 17^th of February in 2014 in the famous magazine The New Yorker. It is modern written, well studied story about the Turkish soap opera “Magnificent Century”, The Turkish trend “Ottomania” and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The article is a mixture history facts and parts of the soap opera which reflects and gives a good picture of Turkish national identity.  

The author having the Turkish background, wrote clever article of how TV show was used to review history and how TV show can affect todays society.  The soap opera “Magnificent Century” has been a cause of discussion since the first time it aired in early 2011.  The show starts from when Süleyman starts planning the creation of “The Ottoman Empire” after his father´s death and the show lets people to see how much time Süleyman spend in the harem drinking and with low-cut gowns of the harem women. It also showed how Hürrem, who Süleyman eventually married was able to manipulate him into killing his best friend and his own son Mustafa, who he had with his concubine before Hürrem. Unsurprisingly, those who adored the national hero Süleyman and the great Ottoman Empire did not accept the “Magnificent Century” drama. Neither did Erdoğan approve of the popular soap opera. He accused several media sources of not telling the truth about Turkey “ This people isn´t the people you showed the world”.

­The online article “Ottoman” has been published not that long ago in 2014.  In my opinion things have not changed from when it was published in The New Yorker. A large number of people from Turkey and all around the world are afraid of losing their lives and so many of them have to leave the countrey to look for better life elsewhere or at least try to. A good example was when Elif Batuman talked with the directors of “Magnificent Centry”, Yağmur and Durul Taylan and they told about being awarded and appreciated around the world, as said in the text “but in your own country you´re living almost in fear of being put in prison” of creating open-minded  historical TV drama.

I think that the article is written for specialist audience who are interested in Turkish history and cultural issues. The text assumes a level of knowledge about the subject. The article gives good understanding of where Turkey stands today. 

Questions:  Can Turkey ever have a leader who would be more broadminded? How did the actresses feel about acting in the much spoken sope opera?

(Photo by Fashion Brand Les Benjamins, who aims ”to bring to the world a true visin of modern-day Turkey” with modern designs. Founder of the brand takes inspiration from a political reform movement that existed during the Ottoman Empire.)