All language subtitles for Turkey with Simon Reeve 2of2 Taurus Mountains to Istanbul 720p HDTV

I'm on a journey around Turkey.

A place of beauty and extremes...

This is terrifying and awesome all
at the same time.

Look at the size of that.

..where conflict and division

threatens to tear the country
apart...

It goes on and on.
Look at this over here.

War is not something distant
at this point.

..with an increasingly authoritarian
regime...

So just to my left, there's a
protest developing.

..crushing opposition
at home and abroad...

Unbelievable.
"BBC English terror agency."

..Turkey is now at the very heart of
world events.

Bye!

As-salamu 'alaykum.
Wa'alaykumu s-salam.

On this second leg of my journey
around Turkey,

I'll travel from the country's
southern borders,

north to the Black Sea coast

and on to the capital city,

before I reach my final destination,
Istanbul.

In the northern highlands,

I visit a remote community keeping
an ancient language alive.

BIRD-LIKE WHISTLING

In the volatile south,
I meet the Kurds

singing a lament to oppression and
conflict.

You can see this is a
police station

guarded and protected from bomb
attacks by these blast barriers.

And I get a speaking part in a
Turkish mega-drama taking the world

by storm.

What do you think?

I began the second part of my
journey in the south,

where the rugged peaks of

the Taurus Mountains provide
breathtaking views.

Do you want to ring them? Yeah.

Shall we just stop on the left
somewhere here?

My guide was Buket Sahin,

whose family once lived as nomads in
these mountains.

If we just go quickly.

SHE SPEAKS TURKISH

It's a hell of a landscape here, eh?

We've come to find the Yoruk people,

who many believe are the original

inhabitants of the country now
called Turkey.

The Yoruk still spend much of the
year living a nomadic life,

travelling long distances, often on
foot, moving with their animals.

Merhaba!

When we finally found Mahmood, he'd
just set up camp for the night.

While the sound of goats signalled

the arrival of his wife, Songul,
with the herd.

Merhaba. Simon. Merhaba!

It's a lion.

Wow! That's been in a few scrapes,
hasn't it?

Look at that.

Where have you brought the goats
from?

Hundreds of years ago, it's said
that there were a million of these

nomadic people living
in the central plains of Turkey...

..in something like 200,000 huge
tents.

Now there's just a handful of
families left

who live a nomadic life.

A sort of link with the past,
I suppose.

For all of us.

But life isn't easy for Mahmood and
his family.

They're a minority group in
modern Turkey,

a country with an authoritarian
Islamic government and they often

face hostility.

What just happened?

Yoruks are Muslims but they
generally don't pray in mosques.

Turkey's recently become more
Islamic and Yoruks are sometimes

seen as inadequately religious by
more pious Turks.

Locals just came up and basically
threatened you

and told you you had to leave.

Do you ever feel unsafe on the road?

You've got two small boys with you.

Did you say wolves?

What a way of life, eh?

Incredible.

21st-century.

As you can hear, there's a lot of
dogs out there.

BARKING
At least, I hope they're dogs!

BLEATING

Night, all.

BARKING CONTINUES

These dogs make more noise than
cockerels.

Barking, barking, the entire night.

On the plus side,
no wolves and no snakes.

After the warning, the family were

packing their belongings
and moving on.

Do you want me to lift him in?

It feels like you really love them.

We were heading off on our separate
journeys.

Bye-bye.

Mahmood and the children will drive
on ahead to set up camp

while Songul follows ancient
trails through the mountains

that only a Yoruk
would still recognise.

The last of the Yoruk nomads...

..heading off into the sunrise.

Just over 50 years ago, almost all
Turks were rural.

Now they're almost all urban.

Nomads don't quite fit the mould.

I headed east along Turkey's
volatile southern border with Syria,

towards the historic Turkish city of
Mardin.

So-called Islamic State was still
holding positions a few miles away.

Turkish forces have been involved in
the war in Syria.

It's a conflict with huge
consequences for this country
as well.

So, look, the border, the fence is
right here.

Just by the side of the road.

The name of this city, Mardin,
means fortresses.

And this place is no stranger to war
and conquest.

This really is such an ancient city.

It's such an ancient region,
actually.

Some of the earliest human
settlements found anywhere on this

planet have been found here
in this area.

I think because the area,
the region, is so old,

it's sometimes easy to forget that

Turkey itself is a relative
youngster.

Turkey, the country, is less than
100 years old.

Of course, Turkey was formed out of
the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

Lots of different ethnic groups,

all coming together under one flag
and supposedly all becoming Turks.

Turks are a proud, patriotic people

but not all of the ethnic groups
here

have wanted to unite under
the one flag.

On the right, just here, look,

you can see this is a police station
and it's guarded and protected from

bomb attacks by these blast barriers
here.

And that's designed to deflect
the shock wave

from a car bomb...or a truck bomb,
for that matter.

So-called Islamic State has
infiltrated

and launched attacks here but war

in Syria has also helped reignite
a bitter conflict inside Turkey.

Just stopped by the side of the road
to take a look at the foggy view.

These are Kurdish communities out
here.

Kurds are an ethnic group found

living in different countries
throughout the Middle East

but they lack their own nation
or state and, for decades,

many Kurds here in the south-east of
Turkey

have been campaigning or fighting
for independence or autonomy.

There are millions of Kurds in
Turkey.

They are at least one in five of the
population.

I headed into the heart of the
Kurdish region

to the ancient city of Diyarbakir.

Kurds have a proud history, culture,
and their own language.

But for decades, they faced

repression at the hands of the
Turkish state,

particularly the Turkish military.

SINGING

I met up with Kurdish activist
Mehmet Kaya at a cultural centre...

..where a group of local singers
meet

to perform traditional Kurdish
songs.

Is it true that it hasn't actually
been possible,

always possible, for the gentlemen
to sing like this?

So just to be clear, singing in
Kurdish was illegal?

Speaking in Kurdish in public was
illegal?

Mehmet is a moderate but,
for decades,

some Turkish Kurds have resorted to
violence in their fight for autonomy

for an independent Kurdish state.

The main Kurdish armed group is
called the PKK.

It's classified as a terrorist group
by the Turkish government and other

countries like Britain and the US.

So we're right next to the old walls
of Diyarbakir now.

During the long conflict between
Kurds and Turks,

tens of thousands have died on both
sides.

There had been a ceasefire but the
war in Syria helped end that.

The conflict here has restarted and
escalated.

Oh, my God.

In Sur, the historic centre of
Diyarbakir,

street battles erupted.

We're one of the only TV crews to
see the consequences.

This is where,

just months ago,

a smallish group of Kurdish rebels,
or terrorists, decided they wanted

to declare autonomy for this area of
the city.

They dug trenches and erected...

set up booby-traps.

The Turkish state didn't react very

well to that, as you can
probably imagine,

but they reacted with what I think
it's fair to say

is overwhelming force.

Turkish security forces rolled in
here with tanks and artillery.

The PKK fought back with assault
rifles and explosives.

Look, and it goes on and on,
look at this over here.

It's unbelievable.

There were buildings

all around us here.

This place has been levelled.

This is ground zero.

The authorities say the damage from
fighting was so extensive,

they need to flatten the area to
rebuild.

There is a real question about

proportionality here.

Elements within the Turkish army
thought it was perfectly acceptable

to bring tanks in to this area,

and use tank weapons and artillery
against citizens of Turkey.

Of their own country.

It's unbelievable.

Amnesty International is reporting
that up to 40,000 residents

were forced to leave this area.

Hundreds of homes
have since been demolished.

I start to get, here,

a real sense of the tragedy

that lies at the heart of this
tortured relationship.

There have been tears and death

on both sides for so long here.

The government blames all this
destruction on Kurdish terrorists.

Much of Sur has now been
expropriated by the state.

Officials say they'll rebuild this
historic area.

Metin Evsin is in charge of
the project.

Is this all damage from the fighting
as well?

Have you got to restore and rebuild
there?

The residents that used to live
here are now being told they can

buy subsidised high-rise flats on
the outskirts.

Some here say Kurds are being
deliberately displaced from Sur to

change the political landscape.

It looks extraordinary.
Suddenly, secret police appear.

Jonathan, stop filming - right now.

There's a heavy security presence
around here

and it's very difficult
for us to film.

We've just had an encounter with
Turkish police officers

who were pretty bloody rude,
to be honest.

The authorities here prefer it when
the media are under their thumb.

There's been a huge crackdown on

free speech and the opposition
across Turkey recently.

Hundreds of journalists have been
arrested or fired.

Foreign writers have been detained.

The situation here in Diyarbakir is
only compounded

by the Kurdish-Turkish conflict.

Tensions are high.
So just to my left,

there's a protest developing

with lots of young, youngish men
who've left the mosque

after Friday prayers.

You can see
the armoured vehicles on my left.

There's water cannon. There's a lot
of armed cops around.

We can't film clearly, overtly.

I can't look at the camera
because they'll guess

and then we could be at risk
ourselves.

We can't afford that to happen
because we could lose all of

the footage that we have shot so far
in Turkey.

There's not really a process of
discussion.

There is confiscation.

I think we're going to go around to
the right here.

OK.

What a place.

Under the current government,

both sides in this struggle had
taken a step forward towards peace.

But now, they've gone two steps
backward.

Popular elected Kurdish officials
have been arrested.

Kurdish militants have launched
deadly attacks.

The conflict shows little sign of
resolution.

I headed north towards Turkey's

eastern border with neighbouring
Armenia.

I was on my way to a dramatic and
beautiful,

yet rarely visited,
part of the country.

Who the hell gets on the train at
ten to eight on a Saturday morning?

No wonder there's nobody here!

With rolling plains and huge
mountains,

Eastern Anatolia is little known to
foreigners.

But outside the tropics,

this is one of the richest countries

in the world for plants and
wildlife.

I don't know about you,

but I don't really associate Turkey
with amazing plants and wildlife.

But they are here.

Turkey, it turns out, has incredible
biodiversity.

In fact, Turkey has almost as many
endemic plant species as all of

Europe put together.

I think this is my stop.

My destination was the Sarikamis
forest.

Can, Can!

Good to meet you.

Lovely to meet you.

Can is one of
Turkey's leading conservationists.

So we're now in the Sarikamis
forest.

We always keep an eye open for any
wildlife that might pass by.

Even brown bears,

very rarely wolves
during the day,

and lynx are possible so just keep
your eye open.

Brown bears, wolves and lynx?!
Yes. They're all here.

Really? Oh, yeah. They're here in
the forest?

That is very exciting. Yeah.

Can has been carrying out the first
detailed survey of Turkey's

brown bear population.

ALARM SOUNDS

Oh, there's the bear alarm!

So Can has just had an alert from
one of his bear traps

suggesting that maybe there's a bear
that's been...

caught. We have caught a wolf once

in one of these bear traps, so even
a wolf is a possibility.

OK. And it's important to get there
quickly for the animal's welfare,

presumably also so it doesn't escape
and nothing else finds it...

Exactly. ..trapped there. Exactly.

Right, there's a van up ahead.

BLEEP.

So what do you think has happened?

I don't know.

False alarm.

He activated the trap, got caught,
and pulled it out.

And he's denying it, of course,
we can see.

So we are now setting it up.

We set it up so that the bear is
forced to enter the trap,

either this way or the opposite.

Cos, you know, there's a dead sheep
in there,

so the bear will come and eat it.

There's another entrance here.
Is there a trap here? Right there.

Where? Well, that's the point.

You're not supposed to figure it
out.

Walk in there on all fours like a
bear would.

You want me to walk in there on
all fours like a bear?

Yeah, so you see how it works.

OK. So go down on all fours.

So just go in there.
Go towards the sheep.

Right, yeah, the sheep does look
particularly inviting at the moment.

You're not going to get to the
sheep. Are you sure?

Whoa! So then I... Oh, my goodness!
Now pull,

like a bear would. Look at that.

So it would just pull away.

Of course, he will try to pull out,

but what happens is, after a couple
of minutes,

they just stop and kind of wait
until we show up.

Can and his team then sedate the
bear and fit a radio collar,

so that its movements can be tracked

and they've made an extraordinary
discovery.

The data we collect has
shown that some of the bears we

collared migrate to the more

productive temperate rainforest
facing

the Black Sea, where they have
access to a lot of acorns

and forest fruits and then they
migrate back.

So this, I would say, is the most
important discovery of the project.

It's a global first.

So these are the only bears of their
kind in the world that migrate.

We checked the entire literature.

The world's only known migratory
brown bears...

Amazing. ..period.

So the trap has been set

and there are traps throughout the
forest here.

Hopefully, later, there will be some
bear activity.

So far, Can has trapped and tracked
more than 30 bears.

And his research has resulted in a
rare triumph for conservation and

for wildlife in Turkey.

It's pretty amazing here.
It is very nice.

Sarikamis forest has some of the
highest numbers and densities of

brown bears in Turkey.

These animals cover massive areas.

You cannot have a sustainable,
viable wolf or bear population

in a small city forest.
So we have to be connected.

We have convinced the government to
create Turkey's first

wildlife corridor.

Can's wildlife corridor links and
connects pockets of forest -

the bear's fragmented habitat.

His aim is to create an unbroken
100-mile band of forest,

stretching north all the way to the
Black Sea,

giving bears the chance to move
freely and, crucially,

spread their gene pool, which lowers
their chances of extinction.

This is an enormous environmental
and conservation success, I think,

for Turkey, isn't it? Yes. It's one
of the few positive conservation

stories to come out of Turkey in the
past decade.

Despite the new forest corridor,

the bears still face serious
threats.

Can's tracking shows that while

some bears are using
the wildlife corridor,

others have stopped migrating...

Straight ahead, one just went over
the top.

..gathering instead at their
favourite diner.

It's the Sarikamis landfill.

Landfill? A dump.

The town dump is the best place to
see bears.

Look at that!

My God!

It's a huge, beautiful brown bear.

Look at the size of that!

Some of these males at this garbage
dump because, you know,

they're feeding all the time,

they do reach grizzly sizes - up to
364 kilos.

Wow! I can see the black shapes
moving around.

There's...what? The maximum count
was 42.

I personally counted 33 in one
night.

33, here? Personally. At one time?

Yeah, one time.
That's extraordinary.

Yeah. So they don't migrate

because there is food here in the
rubbish dump.

Yeah, I mean, migrating is
quite...work, you know.

A 250-kilometre round trip to eat
acorns and fruit.

I mean, why would you do that?

So these bears have learned this
behaviour.

But there's a lot of plastic here so
they swallow plastic bags along

the way, chemicals, so it's very
unhealthy.

The bears need to migrate through

the forest corridor
and eat a healthy diet

and spread their genes around.

At the town dump, it's not only a
dangerous diet they're getting,

but unwanted attention.

The locals come in.
See, just local guys.

Sightseeing. They want to see bears.

It's not safe, because you get
people who get out the car and I've

even seen people taking selfies with
the bears right behind them.

People get out of their cars
next to the bears?

Yeah, and we're worried it's going
to lead to an attack one day and

the bears will be blamed for it and
they will be all culled - or killed.

About four, five years ago, we said
a gate needs to be installed.

The gate was installed the next day.

The problem is, within three days,

that gate that only garbage trucks
could open,

it was dismantled and thrown away.

What I was told by the
garbage-truck drivers,

because it was too much of a hassle
to get out, open the gate,

to close it again. Ah, right.

Yeah, so we just talked to the new
governor of Sarikamis,

and he totally agreed with us.

So we're hoping there will be a gate
installed, like, that's automatic,

just for garbage trucks.

OK. But it is like, you know,
groundhog day.

Every year, we tell the same thing
to different people again and again

for, like, a decade now.

It's saddening to see these majestic
bears

scrabbling around in plastic bags.

They are a Turkish national
treasure.

The failure of the local authority
to protect them is part of a much

bigger problem in Turkey.

Nationally, conservation hasn't just
been a low priority,

it's been forgotten.

It's really sad.
Really disappointing.

I think it's an area of life in
Turkey

where things really need to improve

dramatically, drastically.

Turkey is ranked 177th out of 180

countries for conservation.

Two of the only countries that come

beneath it are
Somalia and Afghanistan.

I mean, Turkey is not doing well

when it comes to protecting
something

that is so fundamentally wonderful
about this incredible country.

I went north towards the valleys and
highlands of Turkey's Black Sea

region and to another area of
extraordinary beauty.

I love those moments when just
nature can be so stunning and brings

a lump to your throat.

Its deep valleys and rugged terrain
has meant that this region's always

been isolated and cut off from
the rest of Turkey.

But now, that might be about to
change.

So we think this is a relatively
modest linking road,

connecting up to what will be called
the Green Road.

It's going to be built snaking

through the upper hills and
highlands here,

more than 1,000 miles long.

It's the kind of grand national
infrastructure project that's

marked the leadership of Turkey's
president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It's very tricky. Part of the reason
that President Erdogan is now quite

possibly the most successful
democratically elected politician in

the world, he has won that many
elections,

is because he is building things.

He is transforming the country.

He's building roads,

loads of them, and lots of people
love that

but it doesn't endear him to
everyone.

The government says the Green Road
will link up isolated communities

and encourage tourism and economic
development, but some locals here
are unconvinced.

People here have a bit
of a reputation - strong-minded,

strong-willed, a bit eccentric.

In an isolated and beautiful valley,

Metin Akunju runs a
bed-and-breakfast

with a slight access issue.

Lovely to meet you.

SIMON LAUGHS

Flipping heck.

Metin, what on earth is this?

What is the drop beneath your
cable car?

It turned out the crate had

been built by a bloke in
the local village.

Right. OK.

Oh, bloody hell.

But Metin assured me he had designed
it to take the weight of a cow.

It all looked pretty sturdy.

OK.

Aargh!

Oh, my God!

It wobbles a bit.
In a rather scary way!

This is terrifying and awesome, all
at the same time!

Very good, Metin.

Very good.

What inspired you to create this
system?

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, wow!

Look at this.

Ho, ho, ho!

It's fantastic, Metin.

Beautiful.

COCKEREL CROWS

Your eggs from your chickens.

Your honey from your bees.

From "the outside"?

What do you mean "commercial road"?

You think the Green Road is actually
to encourage and enable mining?

You keep living your incredible
life.

An inspiration to us all, Metin.

Bye-bye, Metin. Bye-bye.

Are you going to send me off?
Hope to see you again, eh?

I hope so, too.

It is a bit tricky to get to,

but Metin's extraordinary B&B gets
five stars from me.

Driving through these valleys,

you do realise just how isolated the
communities were

before the arrival of roads.

The villages are nestling in these
incredibly steep valleys

and, historically,
it was very difficult, of course,

before mobile phones, for people to
communicate when they were on one

side of the valley from their loved
ones.

But in the village up ahead,
they came up with a solution.

Kuskoy.

We are here.

BIRD-LIKE WHISTLING

Mustafa still uses a language that

is thought to have originated in
these valleys hundreds of years ago.

So just to be clear, many of you
communicate here by whistling?

HE WHISTLES

Flipping heck!

It's a rather beautiful sound coming
out of your mouth there.

All the way up there?

Wow!

Does Eren speak whistling?

Merhaba, Eren. Merhaba.

HE WHISTLES

HE WHISTLES

SHE WHISTLES

HE WHISTLES

WHISTLING

It felt like time to go.

Just to the north,
I reach Turkey's Black Sea coast.

The most powerful figure in recent
Turkish history, President Erdogan,

grew up around here.

Huge posters glorifying him
are everywhere.

I can't stress enough
what a significant figure he is

in modern Turkey.

He's a political colossus here.

But Erdogan isn't the first
controversial charismatic politician

to dominate Turkey.

I headed to the nation's capital.

The city of Ankara became
Turkey's seat of government

when the nation was founded in the
1920s by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

His mausoleum still draws
millions of Turks today.

I mean, this is incredible.

Look at the scale of this.

All for one man.

MILITARY DRILL COMMAND

Ataturk, the father of the nation,
closed Islamic schools,

gave votes to women

and aggressively insisted
Turkey should be a secular state.

Most Turks, but especially
secular Turks,

still revere Ataturk.

The military here
have long been seen

as the ultimate defenders
of Ataturk's ideals.

They've launched a series of coups,

particularly when they thought
a government has become too Islamic.

Now President Erdogan's ruling party

is openly Islamic.

He thought he had
the military under control,

but then, in 2016, a faction within
the military launched another coup.

So this is the Turkish
parliament building.

On the night of the failed coup,

several dozen MPs,
Members of Parliament, lawmakers,

took shelter inside the building,

partly as sanctuary
and partially to defend it,

because they could hear gunfire
in the streets around.

And while they were inside,

a Turkish Air Force
fighter bomber came over

and tried to bomb the building.

Can you imagine
how bizarre that would be

if you transposed that attack,

that event, to London or Washington?

What an assault on democracy
that would be.

The coup attempt was defeated.

Erdogan emerged as a hero,

a defender of democracy.

People rallied to him.

He blamed the coup on
the secretive Gulen movement,

led by a US-based Turkish preacher.

A state of emergency was declared

and a massive round-up
of suspects began.

It's since become a purge
on an incredible scale.

Tens of thousands,
including army officers

but also journalists,
teachers and doctors

have been arrested,
detained or sacked.

I'm trying to meet up with somebody

who's been caught up in the purge.

But we can't meet too openly,

so we've come to
a location outside the city.

Hopefully, she's going to turn up.

I'm meeting one of the few
brave enough to speak out.

She was suspended as a teacher
without warning.

Nice to meet you.
Lovely to meet you, too.

TRANSLATION:

She denies any link to the plotters.

So why do you think, then,

that you have been targeted
and suspended from your job?

Some say the purge is
a legitimate reaction

to a secret, dangerous organisation.

Others fear it's being used
to crush all opposition to Erdogan.

He's elected and has huge support,

but some commentators now believe
he wants to keep power for ever,

even taking the country down
a path towards dictatorship,

while also shifting Turkey
to become a fully Islamic nation,

governed by religious
principles and laws.

They point to the enhanced role
of the Diyanet,

the government department
responsible for religious affairs,

as evidence of this new direction.

I think I'm about to get
as close as I will

to the heart of power and influence
in this country.

I'm off to meet the man
who's been described

as the calm power in Turkey.

The Diyanet is
the religious authority

that oversees Turkey's
85,000 mosques.

It writes the crucial
Friday sermons.

The Diyanet is central to the lives

of millions of people
in this country,

even if they don't know it.

Under President Erdogan's rule,

the budget of the Diyanet has
quadrupled during the past decade.

It's powerful and influential.

I met the boss,
Professor Mehmet Gormez.

Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.

Nice to see you. Thank you.
Thank you. That's lovely.

Thank you so much.
Thank you. Tesekkur. OK.

Tesekkur ederim.
Tesekkur ederim, yes.

It's OK? Yes. Yes. Thank you. It's
OK.

I've been practising. All right.

So, Professor, I would really
like to try and understand

the direction that Turkey is taking.

TRANSLATION:

'President Erdogan has said women
can't be treated equally to men,

'and that, as good Turks, they
should have at least three children.

'But the professor
was keen to stress

'Turkey's more liberal
Islamic values.'

'In the Islamic world,

'Turkey's always been a more
tolerant moderate voice

'than ultra-conservative countries
like Saudi Arabia.'

President Erdogan has said
that Turkey is the hope

of the Islamic world.

In the Middle East, we've seen areas
that are in complete turmoil.

Does the Diyanet have a role to play
in guiding and inspiring Muslims

around the world?

I thought that was
really interesting.

I'm not looking to airbrush out
the problems of this country,

from the treatment
of minorities and women

to human rights abuses,

the quashing of free speech.

There are terrible things
happening here,

and yet, in many of
the neighbouring countries,

in this part of the world,

things are much, much worse.

I really hope Turkey as a nation

can deliver on the high morals

that he said this country embodies.

'Below the offices
of the Diyanet...'

Looks like I'm going down
to the car park.

'..work is already well under way

'to spread Turkey's
religious messages and values -

'around the globe.'

Look at this!

So this is Diyanet TV.

Here, brand-spanking-new,

state-of-the-art
television and radio stations

broadcast 24 hours a day.

Oh, my goodness.
Look, it's the gallery.

'Critics complain the Diyanet
is the religious mouthpiece

'for a president intent on creating

'a more conservative,
authoritarian nation.'

They get seven million viewers
here in Turkey alone.

They have YouTube videos up

that are watched by
more than 25 million people,

so there's a lot of influence
coming from this room

through the channels.

President Erdogan's supporters say

this is for the majority of Turks
who are religious,

and they claim it allows
the moderate values of Turkey

to be broadcast
around the Islamic world.

It can be hard to
get a handle on Turkey.

Is it European or Middle Eastern?

Religious or liberal?

Perhaps it's a bit of both.

For decades, people have been
wondering and worrying about Turkey.

And they've encouraged
and pressed the Turks

to make a choice
between the East and the West,

between being part of Europe
or part of the Middle East.

And most people said
that Turkey needed to choose,

it needed to make a decision,

but the sense I have,
the strong sense I have,

is that Turkey's going to
do something different.

Turkey is not going to
choose East or West.

Turkey is going to
choose its own destiny,

it's going to take its own path.

And that really matters,

because Turkey is powerful
and it is influential.

Both in terms of religion and faith,

but politically, militarily,
and through culture as well,

as I hope I'm about to see.

Turkey hasn't been
so key to global affairs

since the time this land
was ruled by the Ottomans -

part of the greatest Islamic empire
the world has ever seen.

Under President Erdogan,

the popularity of
the all-powerful Ottoman sultans,

grand rulers, has soared.

Perhaps that's no coincidence.

The Turks are calling it Ottomania.

Look at this!

Merhaba.

All very normal.

I don't know why
they're looking at us

like we're out of place.

Exactly! Yeah, they are.

This is Magnificent Century: Kosem,

a huge period costume drama

set within
the sultans' royal palace.

You might have missed it,
but it's broadcast to the world,

watched in prime time
in scores of countries

and making lead actors like
Farah Zeynep Abdullah -

who partly grew up in Maidenhead -
global superstars.

You're a big star...

Thank you. ..in a mega-drama.

Your one goes out
to a quarter of the world.

Yeah. Wow! A quarter of the world!

It does, yeah.

Scary. What role do you play?

I play Faria,

who is a Hungarian princess

and a warrior at the same time,

so she's a...
You're a warrior Hungarian princess.

Yeah. That's pretty cool.

This drama is even popular
in conservative Islamic countries,

where the strong female characters

have become heroines,
and even role models.

I'm just admiring your empire.

The show was the brainchild

of executive producer Timur Savci.

TRANSLATION:

Timur's drama has even been blamed

for rising divorce rates.

You've created an incredible world.

Have you heard about this?

Men have been coming, from some
of the Gulf states, to Istanbul,

to get their moustaches
cosmetically enhanced

so they can look like a sultan.

Is this true?

Yes. Unbelievable!

You're not going to believe this.

I'm getting roped in
to the production.

What do you think?

So... Hey. It's a tricky moment.

I rather like it.

It's not a difficult part.

Are you seriously saying I have
to say a line? Yes. In Turkish?

THEY SPEAK IN TURKISH

HE SPEAKS IN TURKISH

Sorry to interrupt,

but they're ready and
they're there waiting for us.

We can practise over there.

Wow. OK. Thank you very much.

HE PRACTISES HIS LINE

You cannot act but you
must stay like this.

Yeah, OK.

Right hand over to the left.

THEY PRACTISE LINES

I've forgotten the words!

Bloody hell.

(That was all right.)

Perfect. Oh! No.

My coach, my mentor.

This is a huge
Turkish success story.

A project with a massive audience,

a global reach
that promotes a powerful story

and strong characters.

It is a lot of fun to be
just a tiny, tiny part of it.

I headed back to Istanbul,

where the real-life palaces
of the former Ottoman sultans

and the magnificent
mosques they built

still draw millions of visitors.

This is close to where
my journey around Turkey began,

and it's where it ends.

I do feel that my travels
in this country

have shown me many of
the huge problems and issues

that Turkey is facing -

and nobody should deny they exist -

but I do also think this journey

has shown me much of what's best
about this great country.