Thread by @anavrta

The Ertugrul Turn in the Indian Subcontinent.

The next stage of the top-down Pakistan-Turkey geopolitical engagement and deepening of ties has started to take shape.

While the National Strategy may get formulated at the Top, its dissemination downwards requires a Cultural Turn.

PM Imran Khan is on record, of wanting Pakistan to replicate the Turkey model under his leadership.

The Ambassadors of distilling the strategic change into the cultural consciousness of a geography are often the National and Local Celebrities.

Turkish Game of Thrones is key.

PM Imran Khan had been urging Pakistani’s to watch the 2014 Turkish TV Series Dirilis: Ertugrul.

COVID lockdown, gave the opportunity to plant the seeds of Pakistan’s cultural integration with Turkey with Imran Khan urging Pakistani youth to watch “Resurrection: Ertugrul”

Imran Khan advocated dubbing the series in Urdu for general public can to understand.

Penned by Mehmet Bozdag, an acclaimed filmmaker with links to Turkeys ruling AKP party, it is a deeper message of Islamic beliefs with a story of fight against all odds

images.dawn.com/news/1183827

Imran Khan: Our children should watch Ertuğrul, to differentiate between real Islamic culture and “3rd hand” one that reaches via Hollywood/Bollywood.

“Ertuğrul is an important character - Father of Osman Gazi, founder of Ottoman Empire, which ruled the world for 600 years.”

Ertuğrul knocked PM Khan’s socks off because of what he often describes as ‘a shared Islamic history’. Ever since his promotional speech, Ertuğrul has been creating waves in Pakistan.

To say that Pakistan’s roots lie in India is borderline blasphemy, for we are first Arabs/Turks

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government is hell-bent on promoting Imran Khan as Pakistan’s Ertuğrul.

Ali Muhammad Khan, state minister of parliamentary affairs, tweeted a photo praying to Allah to bring back the ‘golden era of Muslims’.

theprint.in/opinion/letter…

Pakistanis have taken Ertuğrul’s history to heart and genuinely started believing that the 12th century Turk belongs to them.

Many local artists aren’t amused with “Turkey turn”

Pakistani TV Series/Dramas are the most popular and widespread source of entertainment in Pakistan.

Even before Pakistan’s independence, Muslims of the British Raj banded together under the Khilafat Movement of 1919-1922 in support of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

The Khilafat—or Caliphate—was a symbol of global Muslim unity.

foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/05/ert…

Ertugrul’s popularity has a deeper political significance.

Pak-Turkey bilateral relations used to be political, military, and economic.

Current Focus - Deepening Cultural connections

Erdogan is making a play to restore Turkey to its historic role as the leader of Sunni Muslims

Turkey understands the power of narratives.

It is a smooth employer of soft power, savvy to all the manipulations and delicate handling necessary to build a new image, rewrite history, and erase both the slander and the truth about a nation’s past.

Viewers see the Ottomans in their strongest and most capable avatars—never as sultans at the helm of a dying empire.

Turkey’s public broadcaster TRT’s mandate - “internationalization of value-based, family-friendly content.

Sees itself as “the channel for the next 5 billion.”

Next Phase?

Joint Production on Turk Lala, an important figure head in the pre-partition Indian Khilafat Movement.

Imran Khan: It is unfortunate that the new generation is not aware of the golden era of Muslims’ rule in the “Sub-continent”.

geo.tv/latest/328818-…

In this quest of reinvention of Civilizational Narratives around India, what is the role being played by Indian Broadcasters; OTT Players and above all the Indian State will define much of the Geopolitical and Domestic Political environment over the defining, forthcoming decade.

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