Nationalists in Turkey have erupted in anger over a Kurdish character in a new Netflix series, ‘3 Body Problem’. The character, Leyla Ariç, is a Kurdish heroine who fought against ISIS in Raqqa, Syria, and is one of the three people assigned by the United Nations to save the world. “PKK terrorists are portrayed as saviours of humankind”, one nationalist fumed. “It is a clear example of cultural imperialism.”
The series has recently been released by Netflix worldwide and is attracting millions of viewers. ‘3 Body Problem’ is based on a Chinese novel, in which an invasion by aliens must be countered against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution in China. Three people are designated to save humankind: a Chinese war historian, an American intellectual and a Kurdish female fighter (while in the book a Venezuelan plays an important role).
In the segment in which she is introduced by the UN Secretary General, she is wearing a Kurdish uniform (actually a PKK uniform, not an SDF uniform). The Secretary General says: “Leyla Ariç came to prominence fighting ISIS in Raqqa. She has exceptional experience fighting and winning asymmetrical battles.”
A well-known Turkish nationalist, Yilmaz Özdil, published a TikTok video in which he explains his negative views on the series showing a Kurdish female fighter as a heroine. “Currently, in the world’s most popular science fiction series, one of the three people chosen to save the world is a PKK woman,” he says. He explains how his anger is in part due to how Turks are portrayed as the antagonists in a few examples of popular American culture.
Özdil mentions a film in which a Turkish consulate in Poland is a ‘terrorist hotbed’. Also mentioned is the book ‘The President is Missing’, co-authored by former US President Bill Clinton, in which a jihadist terrorist plays an important role, who is a character born in Turkey named Suleyman Cindoruk. “In American films and series, they portray Turks as terrorists and PKK members as people who save the world!” Özdil claims.
The Turkish writer puts the blame on both the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and also the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), “which has shown respect to Sheikh Said and supports the mayor of Van, who was a PKK inmate.” Özdil was referring to the CHP not denouncing a street in Diyarbakir named after a Kurdish resistance hero from the 1920s, Sheikh Said, and to the CHP sending a delegation to Van when the elected co-mayor Abdullah Zeydan was denied his election victory (which was later granted).
Özdil’s complaints of the depiction of Turkish terrorism come against reports by various institutes of the effect of Turkish criminal gangs in Europe.
Similarly, the Kurdish fighters who fought ISIS were seen as crucial allies to the West, who created the Global Coalition against ISIS alongside the Kurds.
