Turkish-Saudi animosity spills over into cultural sphere
A new multimillion-dollar series on a Saudi TV channel broadcast across the Middle East depicts Ottomans as tyrants who ravaged the Arab world.
Relations between Ankara and Riyadh — already strained due to a number of factors, including the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi — are set to take another turn for the worse over a television series that launched Nov. 17.
The 15-episode-long “Kingdoms of Fire” ("Mamlakaat Al-Nar"), which began airing on the Saudi-owned, United Arab Emirate-based MBC channel, is a $40 million production that vilifies Ottomans as “tyrannical occupiers who ravaged the Arab world for centuries.”
