Turks Addictive Soaps in The Balkans

Turks Bewitch The Balkans With Their Addictive Soaps

Turkish soaps have replaced Latin American shows as must-sees for many TV viewers in the Balkans - tapping into nostalgia for a system of family values that people in the region have lost, and lament.

Amina Hamzic, Maja Nedelkovska, Donjeta Demolli and Nemanja CabricBIRNSarajevo, Skopje, Pristina, Belgrade

Yasemin (Nurgül Yesilçay) and Savas (Murat Yildirim) from Love and Punishment

Turn on the TV in any part of the Balkans today and you may well tune into a Turkish soap opera.
Booming in popularity across the region, according to media research agencies, dozens of these imports are being screened daily on televisions from Albania to the Black Sea.
Sociologists explain the phenomenon, in part, as a sentimental reaction on the part of viewers in the Balkans to an old patriarchal family model that appears dead in the Balkans but which is still alive in Turkey – at least in TV shows.

Alilovic likes love stories best, as well as the actors, who she says “are handpicked so they compel you to watch the shows and amaze you and make you interested in them”.
Aco Ristovski, from Skopje, likes the fact that characters are not superheroes; there is no violence, just ordinary human tales.
“They are like a light novel. They are more interesting than American ones with all those lawyers and businessmen who don't have the same customs as us,” he says. “Turkish shows are much closer to us.
“Many people make fun of those who watch Turkish shows,” he adds. “I tell them that I need this relaxation, and the offer on Macedonian television provides no other choice.”

All the way to Istanbul:

Snježana Radenković, from Serbia, says was so thrilled with some of the shows that she watched that she went all the way to Istanbul to find out more.
“I saw the old city and the Topkapi Palace, which includes the harem, as well the old houses that look like those in the shows that I enjoy,” she enthuses.
She says her friends also watch these shows, and they are a frequent topic in their conversations.
“When I headed to Istanbul, I left a message on my Facebook profile that I was going to find Savash (a character from Love and Punishment played by Murat Yıldırım), and so many people liked my status and commented on it that I realized that everyone watched the same show,” she says.
She feels many people do not want to admit that they watch these soaps because they feel ashamed to do so.
“It’s not 'in', although it is perfectly all right to watch Hollywood productions,” she continues. “But I do not feel ashamed at all. On the contrary I am delighted.”
Amela Bicic, a student of journalism from Belgrade, says that almost the whole of her family in Belgrade, as well as those scattered across the world, in the US and Canada, enjoy watching Turkish shows.
Her two grandmothers both buy magazines in which they follow the latest gossip about their favourite actors together.
Although she doesn't watch much television herself, she sometimes sits with them in order to spend time together - and says the Turkish shows seem superior to their Spanish and Indian rivals.
“Indian shows are awful. The acting is terrible. Turkish shows you can watch and cry through all the time. They are much better than the others,” she says.
Syzana Gashi, a fan from Peja, in Kosovo, has lots of time to spend on her favourite shows. “I have a plenty of time in the day since I quit my job, that's why I watch TV soaps,” she says.
On the other hand, Lirim Bekteshi, from Gjilan, compares soaps to “reading a novel. They give you the same story, just visualized,” he explains.
Hajrie Reka, from Pristina, says watching TV soaps has become almost a way of life. From Latin American shows to Turkish ones, she has seen them all.
“I love them; they relax me after the stress of the day,” Reka concludes. “It’s an addictive habit.”