Embedding Crimea in Russia(n Empire): Russian views on Crimea in the series ‘Kurt Seyit and Shura/Alexandra’

Abstract

Despite the Russian viewers’ interest in Turkish TV series, only a few Turkish TV series got aired on a federal channel in Russia. One of them is ‘Kurt Seyit and Shura.’ It was broadcast in Turkey between 4 March and 20 November 2014, coinciding with the beginning and the acute phase of Russia's annexation of Crimea. The historical context of the events depicted in the TV series (especially St Petersburg and Crimea in late imperial Russia) aligns to the highest with the new Russian ideology, which began to consider Crimea a part of modern Russia. Soon the series got translated into Russian and broadcast in Russia on a federal channel. Ironically, for the Russian audience, it exemplified the historical integration of Crimean Tatars in the history of the Russian Empire. The article considers perception of the TV series in Russia as ‘misunderstanding’ between two cultural hegemonies: Turkey and Russia.

Keywords

Turkish pop culture Turkish TV series Crimea annexation Crimean Tatars politics of culture politics of memory encoding/decoding model of communication soft power Russian television

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