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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="414" caption="‘Aşk-ı Memnu’ airs on Greek channel Antenna and competes with ‘Aşk ve Ceza’ on Mega. (source: Hürriyet)"][/caption]"Two Turkish TV series came to the aid of Greeks who had to leave the nightlife and stay at home because of the big economic crisis.If 16.5 percent of a country’s population cannot even meet their daily needs, if 24 percent cannot pay their phone and electricity bills, if 19 percent cannot pay their bank credit back, if 9.4 percent cannot pay their rent and if 14 percent cannot even meet the minimum payments on their credit cards, then the situation must be quite dire indeed. […]People spend their nights before the television screen. Of course the upsurge in the amount of time people spend watching TV carries no meaning for media bosses due to the vertical fall in advertisement revenues. There are only a handful of new domestically produced series. Thus they make do with foreign movies, foreign series and panel discussions.It is time for Yasemin and war in “Love and Punishment” (Aşk ve Ceza) on Greek channel Mega and Bihter and Behlül in “Forbidden Love” (Aşk-ı Memnu) on Antena. They are racing head to head, according to surveys. The heroes and heroines of these series feature predominantly on the covers of weekly television magazines.The rage that began with “The Foreign Groom” (Yabancı Damat), expanded with “A Thousand and One Nights” (1001 Gece) and peaked with “Ezel” (Past Eternity) has not vanquished one bit.When asked why the two big television channels compete with each other through Turkish series, a friend who is well versed in these affairs said the reason was, before anything else, the economic crisis. “If there had been a good Greek series, Turkish series then would not have acquired such high ratings,” he said. “Each part of a Greek series costs around 70,000 to 80,000 euros, whereas each part of a Turkish series costs about 7,000 to 8,000 euros.”My friend said so many Turkish series had been aired since “The Foreign Groom” that the Greek audience had gotten used to Turkish. “They like Turkish TV series because they do not sound so foreign to their ears anymore. Another factor is that the scenarios of Turkish series are not alien to Greek society. Moreover, high-budget Turkish series are also of good quality.”I would say “knock on wood” because Turkish series have destroyed many taboos in Greece regarding Turkey and the Turks."Source : Hürriyet Daily News