An exclusive interview with the producer of "Farewell" TV series that deepened Turkey & "Israel" relationship crisis

"Whatever the pressures we will not retreat, our aim is to imprison the unjust in mankind's conscience and history's dusty pages"

Ankara - Hassan Tahrawi

The increasing number of Turkish viewers of the series called "Farewell" aired by the Turkish state-owned "TRT" channel saw the recording of higher viewing ratings for the second episode of the series aired this week compared with that for its first episode. Turkish newspapers devoted large spaces for talk about the series, which stirred "Israel's" anger and protest, but that did not prevent the state television from continuing to broadcast the show, which on the one hand tells about Palestinian suffering, reality, future, customs, traditions, passion and resistance, and on the other the Zionist occupation's crimes, destruction, capture and cold blood killing of children.

In this exclusive interview with the "Farewell" series producer "Selcuk Cobanoglu", he says that this story is not a figment of the imagination but about "a woman reflecting some of what has happened and is happening in Palestine."

- How and when did the idea for this series start?
- The general idea of the "Farewell" series came from a slogan we have that says "Wherever there is injustice, in whatever area of the world, we will be there." As an embodiment of this logo we prepared stories talking about the peoples in resistance. Last year we produced a series on the Caucasus region, now we are talking about Palestine, and tomorrow we will be in another part of the world. 

As is known to all, "Israel" launched a war it called "Cast Lead" on Gaza killing 1500 Palestinians. In that period we were doing a series on Chechnya that displays the resistance of these people, while following the news on events in Gaza through TV screens and newspapers. I do not want to talk about the campaigns we did to support and assist the Palestinian people, because for me this is an issue of conscience, but what I want to say is that more had to done for Palestine. Hence we decided to change direction and take a contemplative look at what is happening around and near us of death and destruction on the one side and resistance on the other. 

In the final end, this is the world and this is its system-the unjust and the oppressed, one side resisting and another works to break this resistance.

As for us we should not have to stay in the middle, because we are a party to this equation. Our duty is to tell and picture, our aim is to imprison the unjust in the conscience of human beings and in history's dusty pages. 

- What locations did you use to film the series episodes? Were they filmed in Palestine?
- Yes, we filmed in Palestine and in Quds (Jerusalem) city, and now we continue filming in Ghazi Antib city in Turkey and Aleppo city of Syria.

"The series is based on a women reflecting some of ‘Israel's' practices,"

- Did you expect such a high viewing and success from the first episode? 

- Regarding the viewing ratings we hope for more, but in truth from the start of our work on the series we did not put viewer ratings in our calculations, because what was important for us was to accomplish this work. We, as a crew, script and directing team, and all the staff, were fully convinced of the necessity for the series to be aired to viewers to portray a portion of what happened and is happening in Palestine. 

As for the success, it is not ours but "an ‘Israeli' success," since in this series we only put a woman reflecting some "Israeli" practices, and again I come back to the word ‘success' to first say as a human being that the events reflected in the series are not a success to anyone, but a blot of shame on the brow of humanity. 

"We will not abandon our convictions nor will we retreat under pressure"
- Airing the series deepened the crisis between Turkey and "Israel," did you face any internal or external pressure?
- Airing the series continues to face some difficulties, the date the TRT channel began showing the series was a difficult and critical one, as it coincided with tensioning in Turkey-"Israel" relations due to the cancellation of the Anatolian Eagle exercises. I think "Israel" wanted to pour its anger out on Turkey through the "farewell" series. 

But to be honest I must say that the Turkish people have stood by us and defended the series, because essentially they form a friend and a staunch defender of the Palestinian people and their rights. We recognize that as long as people are standing on our side, we will not abandon our convictions nor retreat under any form of pressure.