How did your country's media (Mainstream TV Series etc) depict people from your fellow Balkan countries?
Posted by Elsek1922@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 39 comments
Hi,
I was rewatching old Turkish series from mid to late 2000s / early 2010s like Akasya Durağı.
In it there is a Charecter named "Madam Eleni" and by her they depict Greeks as "We are similar not so diffrent, we lived together for centuries only divided by a sea. They are also good and fun people" and once a month(1 episode a week) they would have a racist charecter who doesnt like Greeks or someone who say "Turks and Greeks cant be together" "learn that lesson as a B plot of that episode"
[Madam Eleni played by Nilgün Belgün](
There are other cases of it as well.
How does tv series / dramas like that in your country depict people from your neighbors?
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
That's means Romans/Rums not Greeks of Greece
FilipposTrains@reddit
All Greeks are Romans/Rum, not only those from Anatolia and Istanbul.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
For us no, we only consider those who lived in Turkey as rum/roman, others are Greek
LettuceDrzgon@reddit
Are Turks an authority on how other ethnic groups define themselves or what? If that’s what it’s like “for you” then the way you see it is just factually incorrect because the Greeks of Greece are Romans too.
FilipposTrains@reddit
To be honest we cannot blame them. The Greek/Hellene/Roman thing is extremely complicated not just for outsiders but for us too. And it remains to this day very very controversial. From the POV of the Turks the situation is as follows: 1) The Rhomioi of Istanbul identify as Rhomioi first whereas 2) The Greeks of Greece identify as Greeks first. So their POV is not that unreasonable, even if superficial. Related to this is also the fact that the Turkish government wants to dissociate the Rum community from Greece, just like Greece tries to dissociate the Muslim community from Turkey.
Immediate-Ad-7169@reddit
To further concur with you, in Turkish, the Turkish citizens with Greek bacground who live in Turkey are called as "Rum" and the Greeks who live in Greece proper are called as " Yunanli". We call the Greeks of Cyprus as "Kıbrısli Rum".
FilipposTrains@reddit
So are the Turks living in Greece a different ethnic group than the Turks living in Turkey? Because this is the logical outcome of your reasoning. It does not matter how you call them or us, what matters is how they and we self-identify. We self-identify as both Greek/Hellene and Roman. Some of us don't even like self-identifying as Greek/Hellene.
LettuceDrzgon@reddit
Having seen this guy on different subs, he is actually implying that we are two different ethnic groups. He also calls himself a Rum sometimes while being a Turkish-speaking Muslim, basically he gets to use the Greek identity on himself (or rather a distortion of it, in this case weaponizing it to exclude us) while dictating to us what we are and what we aren’t.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
😵💫Greek identity for myself ? I just said my last name is Greek origin but that does not mean I'm Greek , we are remnants of notable Byzantine family which easy to track back
LettuceDrzgon@reddit
I am not talking about that. I remember the rest of the crap you’ve been posting lmao.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
Like what ? I guess what ever don't fit your Greek narrative it becomes crap for you 🤣
LettuceDrzgon@reddit
Like the fact that you are obsessed with our identity and you jump in to vomit a combination of misinformation and propaganda every single time it comes up, as if you know us better than we know ourselves. Aren’t you the same guy who writes crap like “modern Greeks have chosen to base their identity ancient Greece and to disassociate with Byzantium”, or some paraphrased version of this and then you argue with Greeks who tell you that you are wrong? I’ve seen at least 15 comments on this topic from you. Why are you so obsessed with us?
There is no non-Greek narrative on this matter anyway because others don’t get to have a saying in how we define our identity.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
Why would I obsessed with Greeks ? They are the ones who blame us which we try to steal their legacy which is utterly wrong, I just respond them and remind them what they are since modern Greece is irrelevant to Byzantines , and you cannot claim Byzantines or call them as greek empire , this is the legacy stealing
LuckyStar117@reddit
Whose legacy are we stealing, our own? 😂 We speak their language, we have their religion, we bear their names, we evolved their traditions, we are pretty much the only ones who kept their identity almost intact. A nobody saying we are irrelevant to them doesn’t make it a fact.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
Nice try, but things are not like that, your link with Byzantium is broken since they fall in 1400s while you emerged as a nation in 1800s (huge time difference) thus modern Greece is based on Ancient Greece not Roman Empire in medieval era which is Byzantium
LuckyStar117@reddit
Nice try, but you are still a nobody behind a keyboard talking out of his ass.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
I'm a truth teller
LettuceDrzgon@reddit
You are wrong, and you already know why because people have explained it the other 100 times you’ve said this exact wrong thing. I hope the inferiority complex that we are causing you at least allows you to get some sleep because this level of obsession is not normal.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
Inferior complex to you?🤣🤣🤣 you were the one under our rule over 400 years, not other way around , so I don't have any of that, the opposite I have rightfully superior complex to any other nation which various reasons
LettuceDrzgon@reddit
You wouldn’t be obsessed with who we are if you weren’t feeling some type of way. All that while you don’t even know history, you didn’t even know basic things such as that the Istanbul Rum were excluded from the population exchange, but you have appointed yourself with some sacred duty of “reminding” Greeks who they are. Why are you feeling threatened by those your mighty nation ruled for 400 years (and turned their into a Mad Max dystopia because of your efficiency and superiority)? Idk Mehmet, I am sensing some kind of jealousy.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
Do you seriously think I don't know pogrom? 🥶 anyway it's not obsession who you are, my discussions were about Byzantines which Greeks try to depict them as a greek empire which is wrong , it's just that , otherwise I'm chill with your people as long as they don't attack us
LettuceDrzgon@reddit
You are moving goalposts but I won’t bother explaining because you don’t have honest intentions, just like the other 100 times you’ve discussed this (while not being obsessed at all). Now take your meds and go to sleep. I hope you don’t see us in your dreams considering how much you think about us.
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
Oh c'mon ! You try to show me as anti Greek which is not true, I even play assassin's creed odyssey ! Please stop it
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
In historic sense maybe you are right but in Greek revolution you stripped your rum/roman-byzantine identity although it's much closer to you Ancient Greek one, but anyway you embraced Ancient Greece over Romans/byzantines, today modern Greece celebrate Ancient Greek victories such as salamis rather than Roman victories such as battle of Kleidion etc
Natural_Sell_7309@reddit
Wasn't it the Greeks who called the souls that left Türkiye during the population exchange "Turk Tohumu"?
FilipposTrains@reddit
What you are saying does not make sense because the phrase you gave is in Turkish, not Greek. The Rum who arrived in Greece during the population exchange were called in Greek "Tourkosporoi", literally "Turkish seed".
Natural_Sell_7309@reddit
Okay, that's what you were saying, you don't see the people coming from Anatolia as "white Europeans' Greeks" enough, am I wrong?
kostas_vo@reddit
That was a century ago though. Descendants of the refugees of the time don't carry stigma nowadays, most of the time "My family comes from Pontus/Asia minor" is a fun fact they share, it's not looked down upon.
Elsek1922@reddit (OP)
In the series she keeps going between Athens in Greece and İstanbul
Only-Dimension-4424@reddit
Yes, but she is from Turkey originally , they keep going because many of them relocated in Greece due to population exchange, so that scenes means that
LettuceDrzgon@reddit
The Rum of Istanbul were excluded from the population exchange. Most moved to Greece because of the pogrom.
OsarmaBeanLatin@reddit
Hungarians are usually portrayed as whiny nationalists who can't integrate and believe everyone is out to get them. The most famous example is the character Istvan Fekete (or Pisty for short) played by Mugur Mihăescu.
Bulgarians are depicted as vegetable eaters (specifically pickled vegetables and especially cucumbers) and sometimes car thieves. Some examples I could thing of is the depiction of Hristo Stoichkov (voice by Ioan Gyuri Pascu) on the satirical cartoon "Animat Planet Show". Another example is from the sitcom "Nimeni Nu-i Perfect" where the main character, Dan Chivu want to take his pregnant wife, Eva to Italy in order to avoid the atrociuous Romanian healthcare system but their trip is cut short because when they cross into Bulgaria, their car gets stolen
Greeks have the stereotypical Greek image. One good example is the character Kostas Tsatsikis also played by Ioan Gyuri Pascu
Turks are usually depicted in the Ottoman context or sometimes as truck drivers transporting all sorts of sus stuff here (drugs, prostitutes, immigrants etc.).
Albanians are hardly depicted but when they are they're usually depicted as very backawrds on par with third world countries like those in Africa and the Middle East
As for former Yugoslavia ? It's usually Serbia who gets the most depictions and mentions (altho not to the level of Hungary or Bulgaria). Also Bosnia was an important plot point in an old sitcom but no actual Bosniaks appear in it.
biggiantheas@reddit
We don’t depict neighboring countries, we have lots of different people already living here.
erquoli@reddit
Yeah, put two people in a room, one from Bitola and one from Strumica and there you have a new sitcom where they barely understand each other's words.
Mestintrela@reddit
A very popular comedy series was "Our Parents in Law from Tirana". First it was a highly successful theatre play and then it became a hit tv series.
A greek woman goes to London for studies and cones back with a boyfriend. Her parents who are small town hilbillies of upper middle class expect that he is a "Lord"..but he is Albanian.
Elsek1922@reddit (OP)
Interesting idea
Like when you say "i got some imported mug" but it ends up being from PRC
Unable-Stay-6478@reddit
Here, Yugoslav nations are often depicted ranging from stereotypical, comical portrayals to normal, serious roles.
QuickExtension3610@reddit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meKknteUI34
ayayayamaria@reddit
I don't watch a lot of Greek series but Albanian characters tend to have strong accents