By Ilker Girit
ISTANBUL
Turkey is a country where citizens admire police officers – even if they are television series characters.
Actors who play popular characters in detective series usually say the public behave as if they were a police captain on the street, rather than a thespian.
Given the widespread popularity of Turkish TV serials at home and in the region, playing a top cop brings a lot of attention.
The television industry in Turkey currently shows 10 different detective series, according to BeyazPerde.com.
While some of the series discuss investigation stories with private detectives, others reflect the strength of Turkish police organization through action scenes and modern equipment.
Last week, the Turkish police celebrated their 171st anniversary, with ceremonies and tributes from the country’s leaders. Now, Anadolu Agency has met with Turkish audiences about the influence of popular detective series on the public’s perception of police.
“If I see one of the characters from the series, I address them like: ‘Hey chief!’” says Hatice Ipek, a 46-year old Istanbul housewife and avid follower of detective series.
She adds: “Heroes in the ‘Back Streets’ have stuck in our minds as they are police officers.”
Back Streets is a long-running detective series in Turkey, which shows a police team investigating crimes in Istanbul. It has aired 397 times since 2006 and it is still popular.
“The series has been discussing cases that we could face in our lifetime,” Ipek says.
She also claimed that the reason why the series has been on the air for 10 years is that it has given a place to family life for the police characters.
“We can see how successful they are as both police chief and family leader,” Ipek says.
In the series, the characters are not superheroes; they have also financial difficulties, family problems and psychological issues.
One prominent character has a large family containing a wife, 5 children and also his wife's aunt. Despite the hard life in Istanbul and the troubles his wife or sons cause him, he never gives up on life.
Ipek referred to this character, saying “they live like us, ordinary people," something which explains the show’s enduring popularity.
She says that those series show us how police officers put their life in danger to defend innocent people, adding: “The series gives us an opportunity to get to know police better.
“We realize once more that we should be proud of our police officers.”
Nowadays Turkish police are hard-pressed; their special forces are fighting against terrorism in the country’s southeast and they lost many colleagues.
However, the police organization was founded to ensure local security in cities.
In the 1840s, 31st Sultan Abdulmecid I succeeded on many reform projects, creating a ministry of education, a system of civil and criminal courts with both European and local judges, and reorganized the finance system with the first Ottoman banknotes.
One common point linking the reforms was their modelling on French norms at that time.
Therefore when the Turkish police were established, the regulations were copied from documents created for the Police General Directorate of Paris in 1800.
In time, police officers’ responsibilities have expanded; now they are working in cyber security, traffic control, smuggling and in many different fields.
A recent report published by the Police General Directorate of Turkey shows that nearly 257,000 officers are on duty nationwide and abroad.
Meanwhile, Turkish audiences do not only like contemporary crime stories, they also follow cases set in the 1850s Ottoman period.
‘Filinta’ [Carbine] is one such show. A detective fiction television series, it premiered in December 2014.
The series touches on the subjects which occurred during the first years of the establishment of the Turkish police, founded in the then capital city of Istanbul in 1845.
Although Filinta is not among the most-watched series according to the recent television audience data, the TNS ratings, the series is the first Ottoman detective show in Turkish television history.
“I have been watching the series from the beginning up to now,” says Nur Kepceler, a 38-year old mathematics teacher.
Kepceler, who loves detective novels and watched movies about Turkish history, says the show means “I have both together in one, today”.
She emphasized that the series educates people as to the transformations of police from foundation until today and how difficult it was to catch criminals at that time.
“Ottoman policemen could collect evidence from the scene but there were no security cameras on buildings, … we comprehend how they were following their targets,” Kepceler says.
The series has works by including international directors, one of whom is Bobby Roth, director of shows such as Lost, Prison Break, Fringe and Revenge.
These kinds of series, which have been directed by Roth, demand more concentration from their watchers due to their complicated stories and unexpected plot twists.
Therefore, Kepceler admits, she has watched the series alone on the web when her husband and children fall asleep at night.
