People from rural areas in Afghanistan, where electricity and internet problems have worsened, have started to travel to city centers to buy and download Turkish hit series "Kuruluş Osman" ("The Ottoman") and "Diriliş Ertuğrul" ("Resurrection Ertuğrul").
After the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan last year, people faced many restrictions, including the ban on watching foreign series on national television, yet Turkish TV series continue to be the primary choice. Before the Taliban, Turkish serials were broadcast on more than 30 television channels throughout Afghanistan. These serials met with their viewers on television screens for an hour each evening.
Meanwhile, due to the series ban, the TV series industry has suffered a great loss and national televisions have become unable to broadcast TV serials to a large extent.
Afghan people generally watch movies and TV series from Türkiye, the United States, India, Iran and Pakistan. Turkish-made movies and TV series are among the most purchased and sought after.
Film companies that have been operating in the country for a while deliver the movies and serials they translated into Dari (the dialect of Persian used in Afghanistan) and Pashto to the locals through phone stores. Most of the people living in the city can access foreign channels via satellite, while people in rural areas buy movies in sections from shops that sell phones. They transfer the episodes to memory cards or flash drives, taking them back to their homes to watch as a family.
Gül Ahmed Açıkzey, who owns a telephone shop in Kandahar province in the south of the country, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that customers coming from rural areas mostly buy "Diriliş Ertuğrul" and "Kuruluş Osman." Expressing that he sells Turkish TV series to an average of 50 people a day, Açıkzey emphasized that sales increased even more after the Taliban banned the broadcasting of foreign serials.
Another phone seller from Kandahar, Muslim Barikzey, stated that his income from selling TV series is much more than he earns by selling phones. Stating that historical TV series such as "Diriliş Ertuğrul" are more adopted by Afghan culture, Barikzey said that he sells episodes from Turkish TV series to an average of 80 people every day.
Mohibbullah Nurzey, a father of four children stated that he watches at least one episode of Turkish TV series every day as a family.
Turkish series were broadcast on more than 30 channels.
Due to the impact of Turkish TV series in the country, photos of some TV series characters are being placed on products for advertising purposes.