Violence and Justice in Popular Culture: The Case of Turkish Television Series in Greece.

Since 2000, the production of Turkish television serials is in constant development. These serials that have indisputably a great success at a local level are also exported abroad. More precisely, they were first diffused in countries that were in the sphere of cultural influence of the ancient Ottoman Empire (which means the Balkans and the Middle East). Later they were also exported even far, in Latin America, in China, in Pakistan, in Bangladesh etc. Among these countries, Greece has become a great consumer of Turkish television serials. This consumption has considerably augmented since the economic crisis in Greece. During this period, the local production has been practically diminished. Consequently, Turkish television serials had an ideal context of diffusion, in this country in a state of lack. The themes of these series are not original. They remind the practically standardized themes of the classic “soap-operas” or of the “telenovelas” of the Hispanic speaking world of the period 1990 – 2000. The most frequent subjects concern the sentimental relations and more precisely the stories of forbidden love between two persons with different social status or between lovers that are in an ambiguous situation because of a third person that is implicated in the relation. These problems are always accompanied by intrigues, passions and rivalries in order to attract the public. Violence and justice are omnipresent throughout these stories and determine the beginning and the end of each serial. We propose to present the results of our empirical research concerning the analysis of the representations projected by these serials and their reception by the public in Greece.