• April 16, 2011
• Published in Culture & Art

Famed lawyer Mark Geragos -- one of the most outspoken people in the L.A. Armenian community -- is furious that Cosmopolitan ran a picture of Kim Kardashian on the cover of Turkish Cosmo, saying it's another example of Turks rubbing salt in the wound of the Armenian people.

Geragos -- a friend of Kim K's -- tells TMZ ... Turkey seems to be on a campaign to co-opt L.A. Icons.  First, Geragos says, the Turks used Kobe Bryant's image to promote Turkish Airlines, and now Kim.

Geragos says he believes the Kim K cover is a combination of taking advantage of a celebrity and rubbing salt in the wounds of a people who are the victims of genocide.

Geragos says, "Anyone who has synapses firing would never do such a thing." Source: TMZ

Turkey's television drama industry has played a pivotal role in enhancing the country's popularity in the Arab world. "Five years ago the image of Turkey was that of the oppressive Ottoman Empire," Joseph Husseini of Bright I in Lebanon, a media training facility, told Xinhua, adding "the first year Gumus was broadcast, Turkey became the top travel destination."

"Gumus" (silver) was the vanguard of the Turkish drama. Renamed "Noor" (Arabic for "light") and characters renamed with Arabic names, the entire show became a phenomenon in the Arab world. The show was such a success that 85 million Arabs tuned in to watch the series finale broadcast in 2008.

Just a decade ago international sale of Turkish television dramas amounted to less than 1 million U.S. dollars, and in just a few years it managed to reach 50 million dollars in 2010, due primarily to the huge success of those shows in the Middle East.

Turkish productions now make up 60 percent of all programs of Middle Eastern broadcasters, and the demand keeps on growing.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Evliya Çelebi, the famous 17th century Turkish traveler who journeyed across the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of four decades.
 
Evliya Çelebi, born into a wealthy family in İstanbul in 1611, received a good education and served as an accountant at the Ottoman court. He began his travels first with rounds in İstanbul, during which he is known to have taken notes on many aspects of the city, including important buildings, markets and other landmarks, as well as on traditions. Historical sources say his first journey outside the city was in 1640, after which he toured almost all the Ottoman lands -- which then stretched from Algiers in the west to Baku in the east and from Budapest in the north to Yemen in the south.

Evliya Çelebi’s collection of notes from these travels make up a 10-volume work, the “Seyahatname” (Book of Travels), which still stands as a useful guide to the cultural aspects and lifestyle during 17th century Ottoman Empire.