A television series has opened intense debates in Turkey at the moment. It is called “Kizil Goncalar”, i.e. “Red Buds”, and premiered in mid-December on the anti-government channel Fox TV. The name is nothing different from those of a typical Turkish soap opera – but its subject matter is anything but typical.

Its politically explosive content reflects the social, political and economic crisis in which the country has fallen. And most importantly: it makes abundantly clear how deeply divided Turkish society already is, divided between a strictly Islamic-religious and a liberal-Western world.

Two completely different worlds

The film tells the story of Meriem, who was married at the age of 13-14 to Naim, a member of the Islamic order “Faniler” (“The Mortals”). In this order, which is nevertheless a product of imagination and – in Western European terms – more like a sect, the members must remain loyal, which Naim fulfills with great devotion.

After the devastating earthquake of 2023, Naim, Meriem and their daughter Zeynep leave their devastated homeland of southeastern Anatolia and move to Istanbul. Naim works in an order monastery, Meriem helps out in the community, and their daughter is only allowed to attend a Koranic school, not a regular state school. Soon she will have even bigger problems: The community wants to marry Zeynep to a leader of the order. He receives medical treatment from Dr. Levent, who supports Western ideals as expressed by Kemal Atatürk. These two worlds, which could hardly be more different, are portrayed with a great deal of realism.

A story of success and severe criticism

Turkey has been a deeply divided country for years. Under the conservative AKP party, the gap between religious groups and the weakened secularists has become much wider. At the same time, while liberals were driven out of the state apparatus, the judiciary, higher education and, in some cases, the private sector, many religious orders, brotherhoods and organizations received more privileges and significant financial support. The fear that all these privileges may be lost in the event of a change of government is therefore re-fueled before every election.

The soap opera “Red Buds” gives viewers a chance to see the life of the other side as well, forcing them to realize that the country is polarized and perhaps question which Turkey they want to live in. The second episode already reached almost 7 million viewers – a remarkable number in a country with a population of 85 million.

Edited by: Chrysa Vachtsevanu