The star of the series "Scheherazade - 1001 Nights" Halit Ergenc has been at the center of the scandal that is shaking Turkey in recent weeks, "The Economist" reports. The reason is his role in the series about the life of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled the Ottoman Empire in the XNUMXth century and brought it to the peak of power.
Namely, the series deals with the other side of the life of the ruler whom modern Turks consider a saint and legislator, and portrays him as a lecher who "drinks glasses of wine and has wild sex with the women of his harem."
Muslim conservatives have already sent hundreds of threatening letters to the main actor Ergenc and the director of the series, and they were especially bothered by the explicit sex scenes of the sultan with his favorite wife Roxelana and the scenes from the royal bath and harem. They also objected to the fact that the ruler, who, by the way, among others, killed his own son, was portrayed as a bully in the series.
Bulent Arinc, Turkey's Deputy Minister of Justice, publicly requested that the show be canceled. "They show him in the harem, dead drunk and in poses that I can't even describe," said Arinc.
RTUK television, on which the series is shown, confirmed that it had received many complaints, and that it was also accused of "playing with the national and moral values of Turkey".
"Sultan's children did not arise by themselves. Well, he also had sexual relations and a family", one of the producers of the series "Magnificent Age" responded to the accusations. Halit Ergenc has not yet commented on the scandal caused by the series, but he revealed to Turkish state television that he has also received several death threats.
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