On 28 August 2026, Istanbul hosted the conference “Türkiye Markasının Küresel Anlatısı: Türk Dizileri” (“The Global Narrative of the Türkiye Brand: Turkish TV Series”). Organised by the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, the event explored the global position of Turkish television dramas and their role in promoting the country, public diplomacy and the economy. Styk Kultur was the only media outlet from Poland represented at the conference.
The event took place at the Sheraton Grand Istanbul Ataşehir and brought together representatives of public institutions, the media, the audiovisual industry and academia. The conference was opened by Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Türkiye’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, and Burhanettin Duran, Head of the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye.
The list of participants alone demonstrated that Turkish TV series are no longer viewed simply as part of the entertainment industry. They have become part of a broader conversation about the country’s international position, culture, economy and the ways in which contemporary Türkiye presents itself to the world.
The central event of the conference was the panel “Kamu Diplomasisinde Bir Başarı Hikayesi: Türk Dizileri” (“A Success Story in Public Diplomacy: Turkish TV Series”). It was moderated by Birol Güven, Director General of Cinema at Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
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The discussion featured Mehmet Daniş, Chairman of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK); Yusuf Şimşek, Deputy Director General of TRT; Professor Mehmet Sezai Türk, Dean of the Faculty of Communication at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University; and Onur Güvenatam, one of Türkiye’s best-known television producers.
The conference addressed a subject far broader than the popularity of individual television series. The central question was how Turkish productions have become one of the most important tools in shaping a global narrative about Türkiye.
According to figures presented by the organisers, Turkish TV series are now exported to more than 170 countries and reach an audience of over one billion viewers worldwide. Türkiye is among the world’s leading exporters of television dramas. The value of exports, which stood at approximately $10 million at the beginning of the 21st century, has now surpassed $1 billion.
Yet some of the most interesting moments of the conference were not about statistics. Speakers shared stories illustrating just how deeply Turkish dizi can become part of everyday life for viewers living thousands of kilometres away from Türkiye.
One such story concerned Japan. During a visit by representatives of Türkiye’s television industry, they reportedly heard about two women — one Japanese and one Korean — who had learned to communicate with each other in Turkish through their shared interest in Turkish television dramas. They did not share the same nationality or native language, yet popular culture became the starting point for an entirely new way of communicating.
It is an almost symbolic example of the cultural reach of television. A series does not export only its plot. Words, gestures, ways of speaking, music, food and very specific images of everyday life travel with it.
This global reach also makes the discussion in Istanbul relevant to audiences in Poland. Türkiye has long been one of the most popular travel destinations for Polish tourists, but the way in which people discover the country is gradually changing. Alongside traditional holiday travel, there is growing interest in Istanbul, history, cuisine and contemporary Turkish culture.
For an international viewer, a television series can become the first step towards that fascination. Rather than presenting a country through the language of a tourist brochure, it introduces places through emotions, characters and locations to which viewers return week after week, month after month and sometimes for years.
From a Local Industry to Global Success
The conference also recalled how long — and remarkably dynamic — the journey of Türkiye’s television industry has been. One important moment in that history was the success of Çalıkuşu, a television adaptation that gained considerable popularity beyond Türkiye’s borders as early as the 1980s, including in the Soviet Union.
Speakers noted that the cultural impact of the production proved remarkably long-lasting. Years later, while travelling through Central Asia, people working in the industry reportedly still encountered viewers who remembered the characters and asked emotionally about Kamran, one of the central figures in Çalıkuşu.
It is a reminder that the success of a television series does not necessarily end when its final episode airs. Some productions remain in the collective memory for generations.
Another symbolic milestone was the first international sale of the series Deli Yürek to Kazakhstan in 1997 — reportedly for just $30 per episode. Today, leading Turkish productions command an entirely different value on international markets, and the industry’s development has become one of the most notable examples of the growth of Türkiye’s creative economy.
Among the important breakthroughs were the success of Yabancı Damat in Greece and Gümüş, known throughout much of the Arab world as Noor. Turkish stories began reaching audiences with no linguistic or historical connection to Türkiye.
What became increasingly clear was that stories about love, family conflict, ambition, betrayal and the tensions between tradition and modernity could resonate far beyond the cultural context in which they were created.
The scale of this interest sometimes surprised even the industry itself. During the conference, speakers referred to the example of Chile, where in 2014 Binbir Gece, internationally known as One Thousand and One Nights, achieved exceptionally high viewing figures. According to figures cited during the discussion, its popularity was compared with some of the country’s biggest television events and even exceeded interest in certain broadcasts connected with Chile’s participation in the FIFA World Cup.
Turkish television dramas have developed their own distinctive language of storytelling, and emotion has become one of their greatest strengths. Extended narratives, multi-generational conflicts and characters whose stories unfold over dozens of episodes allow viewers to immerse themselves in fictional worlds for much longer than many contemporary short-form television formats.
How Turkish TV Series Can Change the Way People See Türkiye
One of the most interesting themes of the conference was the relationship between watching television dramas and the real-life choices made by viewers. After all, the influence of a production does not necessarily end with the closing credits.
Speakers referred, among other things, to research concerning audiences of Turkish television dramas in Latin America. For many viewers, their first contact with Turkish culture through the screen became the beginning of an interest in Turkish cuisine, restaurants, everyday customs and even Turkish tea.
A television series can therefore influence not only how viewers imagine a country, but also some of their everyday choices.
This is where the significance of Turkish dizi for public diplomacy becomes particularly visible. A conventional promotional campaign may communicate a message about a country in a matter of seconds. A television series can do something similar over hundreds of hours — without directly asking its audience to be persuaded.
Viewers encounter Türkiye through stories about love, family, conflict and ambition. They see characters drinking tea, eating breakfast, speaking with their parents, living in particular homes and spending time in recognisable places.
Culture becomes part of the story rather than promotional material.
This may be one reason why the influence of television dramas can prove more enduring than traditional advertising.
A Turkish Reality Without Traffic?
The conference also raised a more surprising question: how television dramas create their own — often highly idealised — image of Türkiye.
International viewers watching Turkish productions might easily conclude that Istanbul residents spend much of their lives in luxurious Bosphorus mansions, surrounded by forests and almost entirely free from the realities of urban traffic.
The real city, of course, looks rather different.
Speakers pointed to several practical reasons for this cinematic image. Filming in a huge and densely populated metropolis is expensive and complicated. It is far easier to control a production set inside a private mansion, on a closed property or in a forest than in the middle of one of the world’s most intensely populated urban environments.
There is also the issue of advertising, shop signs and logos, which often need to be removed, obscured or otherwise managed in television productions. The result can be somewhat paradoxical: the Istanbul of Turkish television dramas is often quieter, emptier and considerably more luxurious than the real city.
One of the most recognisable symbols of this fictional world is the yalı — the historic and often extraordinarily luxurious waterfront mansion found along the Bosphorus. For Turkish audiences, these buildings are part of Istanbul’s cultural landscape. For international viewers, they have become almost synonymous with the world of Turkish television dramas.
Can Turkish TV Series Become a Guide to Türkiye?
One of the most interesting subjects discussed in Istanbul was the relationship between television dramas and tourism. A series does not need to directly encourage viewers to visit a particular destination. Sometimes it is enough to show them the Bosphorus, Istanbul, Cappadocia, Mardin or Göbeklitepe over the course of many episodes.
First comes an emotional connection with the story. Then comes curiosity about the place where that story was told.
This is one of the reasons why Turkish television dramas have become an important part of the development of film tourism. During the conference, speakers referred to Cappadocia, whose international visibility increased following the success of Asmalı Konak, as well as Göbeklitepe, which reached a new international audience through the series Atiye (The Gift).
Istanbul naturally occupies a special position. For years, the city has been one of the most important protagonists of Turkish television dramas in its own right. The Bosphorus, palaces, historic neighbourhoods and distinctive waterfront mansions create an image of the city that often remains with viewers long after a series has ended.
Can a TV Series Export a Single Word?
The ambitions of Türkiye’s growing digital media industry were also reflected in the story of tabii, the streaming platform created by TRT. Even its name was carefully chosen.
The Turkish word tabii can mean, among other things, “of course” or “naturally”. One of the ambitions behind the platform was that, as its international presence grew, the word itself might become recognisable beyond Türkiye.
It is an interesting example of thinking about popular culture as something broader than the export of a finished product. Along with television dramas, language itself can travel across borders.
Speakers at the conference pointed out that other major audiovisual cultures have built their global presence in similar ways over decades. Hollywood has helped spread a particular image of America, British popular culture has popularised distinctive forms of language and communication, while French culture has developed its own internationally recognisable cultural codes.
Türkiye is now seeking to use a similar mechanism.
A New Chapter in Europe’s Fascination with Türkiye
Although the contemporary phenomenon of Turkish television dramas may appear to be distinctly 21st-century, Europe’s fascination with Türkiye and Ottoman culture has a much longer history.
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Turquerie — a European fashion inspired by images and ideas associated with the Ottoman Empire — became particularly popular. Orientalised clothing, interiors and decorative motifs appeared in art and fashion, accompanied by a broader fascination with imagined versions of Ottoman life and culture.
Contemporary Turkish television dramas are, of course, an entirely different phenomenon, but the mechanism of cultural fascination remains interestingly similar.
Türkiye is once again becoming part of the imagination of audiences far beyond its borders — this time not primarily through travellers, European royal courts or painting, but through screens.
There is, however, one fundamental difference. Today’s viewers can spend several evenings each week with Turkish stories for months at a time. They can follow the lives of characters, recognise places, become familiar with the language and develop an emotional relationship with a country they may never have visited.
For audiences in Poland, this mechanism is particularly interesting. Türkiye is already a familiar destination for Polish travellers, but television dramas can present the country from a perspective very different from the traditional holiday experience.
They can become the beginning of an interest in places, history and culture that lie beyond the typical itinerary of a Mediterranean beach holiday.
Popular culture can therefore encourage people to rediscover a destination they thought they already knew.
The conference in Istanbul demonstrated that the success of Turkish television dramas is no longer simply a story about high viewing figures and record-breaking export contracts.
It is also a story about how fictional characters, language, places and everyday rituals cross borders — and how television drama has become one of the most powerful carriers of contemporary Turkish culture.
For millions of viewers around the world, their first encounter with Türkiye does not begin at an airport.
It begins with the first episode.
Artykuł powstał w ramach relacji z konferencji, w której uczestniczyliśmy na zaproszenie.
