By Die Morina, Hamdi Firat Buyuk
Among many other Turkish TV series, audiences in Kosovo may soon get to see “Payitaht Abdulhamid” [“Capital City – Abdulhamid”] the story of the 19th century Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II, produced by the Turkish public broadcaster TRT.
In this popular TV soap opera, the Sultan – the last one to exert effective control over the fracturing Ottoman Empire – is portrayed as a virtuous ruler who went out of his way to preserve law and order throughout his sprawling realm.
The show also suggests that predatory European great powers, European agents within Ottoman Empire, Zionists and liberal intellectuals were largely responsible for the empire’s disintegration.
While Turkish soap operas are eagerly watched across the Balkans, this particular project has triggered a new debate in the Balkans and in Kosovo about the use of historical revisionism and idealized images of late imperial period for contemporary political reasons.
