Boycotting Neo-Ottoman Cool

Abstract

Abstract In the 2000s, Turkish-Arab relations warmed up, and the rising popularity of Turkish television dramas in the Arab world was part of an overall ‘zero-problem with neighbors’ realignment initiated by Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party (AKP). However, Turkey’s involvement in the Arab uprisings complicated this rapprochement. The Turkish government, given their doctrinal proximity, supported the Muslim Brotherhood governments that were elected in Tunisia and Egypt, and then entered the fray of the Syrian uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. After the Egyptian military deposed the elected president and Muslim Brotherhood leader Muhammad Morsi in a June 2013 coup, Egypt-Turkish relations deteriorated, as manifest in the Egyptian media industry boycott of Turkish television dramas. In this paper, by examining Arabic-language, mostly Egyptian primary sources, I analyze the geopolitical, economic and media dimensions of the Egyptian boycott of Turkish productions from Egypt’s perspective, and cast a new light on state-media relations in the Arab world and the interaction between media industries and shifting geopolitics.