Ertuğrul Goes East: Turkey Rising in South Asia

[This event is organised by the Middle East Institute's Arabia Asia Research Cluster and the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore] 

In 2019, at the start of Ramadan, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the country to watch a dubbed version of the Turkish period drama, Diriliş: Ertuğrul (Resurrection: Ertuğrul), on national television. In it, viewers will see that the hero struggles to impose just rule against foreign enemies. This drama was originally released in 2014 by the government-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation to shore up domestic support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by highlighting parallels between the hero’s struggles and the embattled Turkish leader’s rule. Ertuğrul is also popular among the Muslims of India and Bangladesh.

Turkey's relations with the countries of South Asia have undergone significant changes recently. While Ankara and New Delhi enjoy cordial economic ties with two-way trade at 5.42 billion dollars from 2020 to 2021, they have had an uneasy political relationship due to Turkey’s support for Pakistan’s position on the Kashmir issue and divergent views on the Gülen movement. With Turkey set to become a critical player in post-America Afghanistan, bilateral ties are likely to enter a difficult phase. Pakistan has generally leaned towards Turkey, which, under Erdoğan, has chased neo-Ottoman ambitions of leadership of the Muslim world. Both have supported each other on the global stage and alongside Malaysia, they have designs on an alternative Islamic axis to rival the Arab one. Turkey also has close links with Bangladesh in several areas –  bilateral trade is expected to double from the estimated 1 billion dollars that it currently is and  Ankara has also internationally-backed Dhaka over the Rohingya issue.

The panel discussion will look at the history of Turkey’s links with South Asia and extend to exploring geopolitical impacts on the growing Ankara-Islamabad and Ankara-Dhaka ties, while examining the growing distance between Ankara and New Delhi. Finally, it will survey the cultural ‘battleground’ in the Muslim world, where drama serials such as Ertuğrul and the Saudi Arabia-UAE-backed Kingdoms of Fire are used to further each side’s narrative.

This public lecture was conducted online via Zoom on Wednesday, 20 October 2021.