Turkey's 'Invasion' of Bulgaria

At the beginning, there was Isaura. After the fall of the Communist regime in Bulgaria, local TV channels started airing the Brazilian soap opera “Escrava Isaura” (Slave Isaura). It became an instant hit and shortly various Latin American soaps occupied a regular prime-time. In several years, Bulgaria was flooded, to say the least, with different versions of Isaura, Casandra, Juan Carlos, etc.

And just as Bulgarians started to get used to the Latinos, “Binbir Gece” appeared on Bulgarian private channel Nova TV, followed shortly after by “Gumus”, which aired on the TV channel bTV. Both series triggered not a wave, but rather a tsunami of Turkish soap operas in the country.

All of the Turkey-produced series focus on simple, everyday topics like tangled love affairs, heartache, and betrayal.

A frequent topic is also the poor but talented young woman who falls in love with her boss. Unlike Latin American soap operas, however, family and respect for the elderly is one of the major topics in the Turkish soaps, and this is believed to be one of the reasons for the huge interest in Bulgaria.

Executives at private Bulgarian channel Nova TV believed the huge success was also due to the similarities in the social culture and lifestyle of the two countries. Led by the enormous interest, the two major private TV channels in Bulgaria started a competition on who will air more Turkish soap operas and receive higher ratings, respectively.

However, Binbir Gece and other soap operas of that kind became a major hit not only in Bulgaria, but also in other countries on the Balkans and the Middle East.

As a result, the interest in Turkey, as a tourist destination, increased significantly, especially for locations where the soap operas were filmed. Travel agencies, determined to cash in on the shows’ popularity, put aside mosques and historical places and ensured guides who provide inside scoops on the shows, cast and set.

Only in Bulgaria, the number of tourists traveling to Turkey has increased by 40%, according to data from travel agencies.

It was recently announced that Turkey sold 70 soap operas in 2010, which is a record-high number. They were sold mainly to countries from Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East.

According to Firat Gulgen, Director of the Turkish media group Kalinos Holding, which is responsible for 80% of the sales of Turkish soap operas abroad, the biggest market is the Middle East, which holds 60%. However, projects are also currently under development in Russia, Germany and Ukraine.

Even though Turkish soap operas target mainly housewives, they appear interesting to people from different age groups. The controversial topics helped to attract younger viewers as well. Taboos such as alcohol, premarital sex and abortion were tackled by the soap operas and revealed a deviation from highly conservative Turkish traditions.

The series were initially produced for Turkish audience only, but their airing abroad has helped to change the opinion about Turkish people and they served as sort of ambassadors of Turkey to the rest of the world.

For comparison, Bulgaria produced only one TV series in 2010 – “Staklen Dom” (The Glass House). It is deemed to be the most successful Bulgarian-made series so far. It is a major hit in the country and it was supposed to air on FOX Turkey.

The only trouble is that the Bulgarian government does not seem to realize the important role that such a soap opera could have on increasing the country’s popularity abroad.

Tourism is a priority, ministers say? Well, advertisements showing beaches and mountains would probably increase the tourism slightly but selling a TV series abroad would definitely have a much stronger impact, if it is interesting and worth-watching, that is.

It is time for Bulgaria to follow the example of its neighbor, stop depending on state funding (since such will be provided “when possible”, the government said) and start working on putting its own name on the map.

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