Turkish TV series are enjoying an export boom. A heavy dose of violence and gunfights may have contributed to this boom. Under pressure to attune to the government’s conservative worldview, TV series in recent years have been cleansed of love-making scenes and “bad habits” such as alcohol, drugs and smoking, leading producers to add thrill by increasing the dose of violence.

Arguably, the “moral” filter has facilitated the sale of TV series to foreign markets, especially Muslim countries in the Middle East.

In 2010, Turkish companies sold TV series to 20 countries, generating some $50 million. Last month, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said overseas sales had reached $350 million, making Turkey one of the biggest exporters of TV series in the world. The minister said Turkish TV shows have aired in more than 150 countries.

The expansion also appears to benefit others in the business community. Sekib Avdagic, the head of the Istanbul Trade Chamber, said TV series marketed overseas are stoking demand for other Turkish products as well. “We are happy to see that Turkish productions are gluing millions of people to the screens of their TV sets, smartphones and computers in many countries, from Sweden and Costa Rica to China and Spain. With the ground already laid by the series, it becomes very easy for our entrepreneurs to enter the markets of those countries,” Avdagic said. Fragrances named after Turkish soap-opera stars have broken sales records in the Middle East, he noted, adding that the TV series had helped attract more Middle Eastern tourists to Turkey and fanned interest in Turkish-language courses in countries such as Egypt, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece.