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00:00I'm on a journey around Turkey, a place of beauty and extremes.
00:14This is terrifying and awesome all at the same time.
00:19Look at the size of that.
00:23Where conflict and division threatens to tear the country apart.
00:28It goes on and on. Look at this over here.
00:32War is not something distant at this point.
00:37With an increasingly authoritarian regime.
00:40So just to my left is a protest developing.
00:43Crushing opposition at home and abroad.
00:46Unbelievable. BBC, English terror agency.
00:51Turkey is now at the very heart of world events.
00:57On this second leg of my journey around Turkey,
01:09I'll travel from the country's southern borders,
01:12north to the Black Sea coast and on to the capital city
01:17before I reach my final destination, Istanbul.
01:22In the northern highlands, I visit the remote community,
01:24keeping an ancient language alive.
01:30In the volatile south, I meet the Kurds,
01:32singing a lament to oppression and conflict.
01:35You can see this is a police station guarded and protected
01:39from bomb attacks by these blast barriers.
01:43And I get a speaking part in a Turkish mega drama
01:46taking the world by storm.
01:49What do you think?
02:16I began the second part of my journey in the south,
02:20where the rugged peaks of the Taurus Mountains
02:22provide breathtaking views.
02:30Do you want to ring them?
02:32Shall we just stop on the left somewhere here?
02:34My guide was Buket Sahin,
02:37whose family once lived as nomads in these mountains.
02:40If we just go quickly.
02:42I've never turned left. I'm always following the Karaman sign.
02:47It's a hell of a landscape here, eh?
02:53We've come to find the Yoruk people,
02:55who many believe are the original inhabitants
02:57of the country now called Turkey.
03:03The Yoruk still spend much of the year living a nomadic life,
03:07travelling long distances, often on foot,
03:10moving with their animals.
03:13Hello. Welcome.
03:15When we finally found Mahmut, he'd just set up camp for the night.
03:20But the sound of goats signalled the arrival of his wife Songal
03:23with the herd.
03:25Hello.
03:27Hello.
03:29It's a lion.
03:31Wow, that's been in a few scrapes, hasn't it?
03:33Look at that.
03:35Where have you brought the goats from?
03:37We leave Mersin in April.
03:39We travel 300-350 kilometres from the Mediterranean.
03:45We return to the mountains in the summer.
03:50Slowly, one day there, two days there,
03:52three days there, five days there.
04:02Hundreds of years ago,
04:04it's said that there were a million of these nomadic people living
04:09on the central plains of Turkey,
04:12in something like 200,000 huge tents.
04:16Now there's just a handful of families left
04:19who live a nomadic life.
04:21They sort of link with the past, I suppose.
04:24For all of us.
04:28But life isn't easy for Mahmut and his family.
04:31They're a minority group in modern Turkey,
04:33a country with an authoritarian Islamic government,
04:36and they often face hostility.
04:39What has happened?
04:41They say, get out of here.
04:44It's always like this.
04:46They say, get out of here.
04:49Yes, that's how it is.
04:51They say, get out of here.
04:53There's a very systematic approach to nomadic culture.
04:59There are more strict ones.
05:01There are stricter ones.
05:03For the villagers.
05:07Let's go.
05:09Yoroks are Muslims, but they generally don't pray in mosques.
05:13Turkey's recently become more Islamic,
05:15and Yoroks are sometimes seen as inadequately religious
05:18by more pious Turks.
05:40We'll do it ourselves.
05:45Locals just came up and basically threatened you
05:48and told you you had to leave.
05:50Do you ever feel unsafe on the road?
05:53You've got two small boys with you.
05:55I'm not afraid.
05:57I'm used to it.
06:02It's very sad for me to hear this from Mahmut.
06:06The government should be ashamed of itself.
06:09Because it's the government that's responsible.
06:11Everything's gotten worse.
06:14Because it's a typical political Islam.
06:19Everyone's trying to fit into a certain system.
06:25Because my ancestors, and all of Turkey's ancestors...
06:36It's dark here.
06:38Wolves don't attack.
06:40So it's a bit more crowded.
06:44Wolves.
06:45They come from here.
06:47It's like a theft.
07:02I'm asleep.
07:07At least I hope they're dogs.
07:14Night all.
07:37These dogs make more noise than cockerels.
07:41Barking, barking the entire night.
07:47On the plus side, no wolves and no snakes.
07:55After the warning, the family were packing their belongings
07:59and moving on.
08:07Put your feet up.
08:10Do you want me to lift them in?
08:12No, I can lift them.
08:20It feels like you really love them.
08:22Yes, they're like my children.
08:24Without them, we wouldn't be here.
08:26Thanks to them.
08:29We were heading off on our separate journeys.
08:37Bye-bye.
08:45Mahmut and the children will drive on ahead to set up camp,
08:49while Songal follows ancient trails through the mountains
08:53that only a Yoruk would still recognise.
08:57The last of the Yoruk nomads.
09:01Heading off into the sunrise.
09:04Just over 50 years ago, almost all Turks were rural.
09:08Now they're almost all urban.
09:10Nomads don't quite fit the mould.
09:16I headed east along Turkey's volatile southern border with Syria,
09:20towards the historic Turkish city of Mardin.
09:26The so-called Islamic State was still holding positions a few miles away.
09:32Turkish forces have been involved in the war in Syria.
09:35It's a conflict with huge consequences for this country as well.
09:39So, look, the border, the fence is right here,
09:42just by the side of the road.
09:48The name of this city, Mardin, means fortresses.
09:56And this place is no stranger to war and conquest.
10:02This really is such an ancient city.
10:07It's such an ancient region, actually.
10:10Some of the earliest human settlements found anywhere on this planet
10:14have been found here in this area.
10:16I think because the area, the region, is so old,
10:19it's sometimes easy to forget that Turkey itself is a relative youngster.
10:23Turkey, the country, is less than 100 years old.
10:28Now, of course, Turkey was formed out of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
10:32Lots of different ethnic groups all coming together under one flag
10:36and supposedly all becoming Turks.
10:44Turks are a proud, patriotic people,
10:47but not all of the ethnic groups here have wanted to unite under the one flag.
10:53So, on the right just here, look, you can see this is a police station
10:57and it's guarded and protected from bomb attacks
11:01by these blast barriers here.
11:04And that's designed to deflect the shockwave
11:08from a car bomb, or a truck bomb, for that matter.
11:13The so-called Islamic State has infiltrated and launched attacks here,
11:17but war in Syria has also helped re-ignite the Islamic State.
11:21It's also helped re-ignite a bitter conflict inside Turkey.
11:27Just stopped by the side of the road to take a look at the foggy view.
11:30These are Kurdish communities out here.
11:34Kurds are an ethnic group
11:37found living in different countries throughout the Middle East,
11:40but they lack their own nation or state,
11:43and for decades, many Kurds here in the south-east of Turkey
11:47have been campaigning or fighting for independence or autonomy.
11:52There are millions of Kurds in Turkey.
11:54They're at least one in five of the population.
11:57I headed into the heart of the Kurdish region,
12:00to the ancient city of Diyarbakir.
12:03Kurds have a proud history, culture and their own language,
12:07but for decades they faced repression at the hands of the Turkish state,
12:11and particularly the Turkish military.
12:18I met up with Kurdish activist Mehmet Kaya at a cultural centre,
12:23where a group of local singers meet to perform traditional Kurdish songs.
12:48This song is about oppression.
12:59When you turn around,
13:02you can see that it's either the police or the gendarmes.
13:06THEY SING IN TURKISH
13:15Is it true that it hasn't actually been possible,
13:18always possible for the gentleman to sing like this?
13:37So just to be clear, singing in Kurdish was illegal.
13:42Speaking in Kurdish in public was illegal.
14:06HE SINGS IN TURKISH
14:37Mehmet is a moderate, but for decades,
14:40some Turkish Kurds have resorted to violence
14:43in their fight for autonomy or an independent Kurdish state.
14:47The main Kurdish armed group is called the PKK.
14:50It's classified as a terrorist group by the Turkish government
14:54and other countries like Britain and the US.
14:57So we're right next to the old walls of Diyarbakir now.
15:01During the long conflict between Turkey and the Kurds,
15:04tens of thousands have died on both sides.
15:07There had been a ceasefire, but the war in Syria helped end that.
15:11The conflict here has restarted and escalated.
15:14Oh, my God.
15:16In Sur, the historic centre of Diyarbakir,
15:19street battles erupted.
15:21We're one of the only TV crews to see the consequences.
15:24This is where, just months ago,
15:28a smallish group of Kurdish,
15:31rebels or terrorists decided they wanted to declare autonomy
15:35for this area of the city.
15:37They dug trenches and erected, set up booby traps.
15:41The Turkish state didn't react very well to that,
15:44as you can probably imagine,
15:46but they reacted with what I think it's fair to say
15:49is overwhelming force.
15:51Turkish security forces rolled in here with tanks and artillery.
15:55The PKK fought back with assault rifles and explosives.
15:59Look, and it goes on and on.
16:01Look at this over here.
16:03It's unbelievable.
16:07There were buildings all around us here.
16:11This place has been levelled.
16:13This is ground zero.
16:18The authorities say the damage from fighting was so extensive,
16:22they need to flatten the area to rebuild.
16:25There is a real question about proportionality here.
16:30Elements within the Turkish army thought it was perfectly acceptable
16:35to bring tanks in to this area
16:38and use tank weapons and artillery against citizens of Turkey,
16:43of their own country.
16:47It's unbelievable.
16:49Amnesty International says the Turkish army
16:52It's unbelievable.
16:54Amnesty International is reporting that up to 40,000 residents
16:58were forced to leave this area.
17:00Hundreds of homes have since been demolished.
17:03I start to get here a real sense of the tragedy
17:07that lies at the heart of this tortured relationship.
17:10There have been tears and death on both sides for so long here.
17:16The government blames all this destruction on Kurdish terrorists.
17:21Much of Sur has now been expropriated by the state.
17:25Officials say they'll rebuild this historic area.
17:29Metin Evsin is in charge of the project.
17:45Is this all damage from the fighting as well?
17:48Have you got to restore and rebuild there?
17:51The residents who used to live here are now being told
17:54they can buy subsidised high-rise flats on the outskirts.
17:58Some here say they've been living here for decades.
18:01It's a little too much to ask for money.
18:04We're going to have to opt out of it.
18:06If we can afford it, we'll move in.
18:08We're going to have to move in.
18:10We're going to have to move in.
18:12We're going to have to move in.
18:14We're going to have to move in.
18:16We're going to have to move in.
18:18rise flats on the outskirts. Some here say Kurds are being deliberately
18:22displaced from Sir to change the political landscape.
18:26It's extraordinary. Suddenly, secret police appear.
18:31Can I stop filming? Right now. There's a heavy security presence around
18:40here and it's very difficult for us to film. We've just had an encounter with Turkish police
18:46officers who were pretty bloody rude, to be honest.
18:50The authorities here prefer it when the media are under their thumb.
18:56There's been a huge crackdown on free speech and the opposition across Turkey recently.
19:02Hundreds of journalists have been arrested or fired.
19:05Foreign writers have been detained. The situation here in Diyarbakir is only compounded
19:10by the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. Tensions are high.
19:15Just to my left, there's a protest developing with lots of young-ish men who've left the
19:22mosque after Friday prayers. You can see the armoured vehicles.
19:26On my left, there's water cannon. There's a lot of armed cops around.
19:32We can't film clearly, overtly, and I can't look at the camera because they'll guess.
19:36And then we could be arresting ourselves. We can't afford that to happen because we
19:41could lose all of the footage that we have shot so far in Turkey.
19:45There's not really a process of discussion. There is confiscation.
19:50I think we're going to go round to the right here.
19:55OK. What a place.
20:01Under the current government, both sides in this struggle had taken a step forward towards
20:06peace. But now they've gone two steps backwards.
20:11Popular elected Kurdish officials have been arrested.
20:14Kurdish militants have launched deadly attacks. The conflict shows little sign of resolution.
20:27I headed north, towards Turkey's eastern border with neighbouring Armenia.
20:37I was on my way to a dramatic and beautiful, yet rarely visited, part of the country.
20:45Who the hell gets on the train at ten to eight on a Saturday morning?
20:51No wonder there's nobody here.
20:59With rolling plains and huge mountains, eastern Anatolia is little known to foreigners.
21:09But outside the tropics, this is one of the richest countries in the world for plants
21:13and wildlife.
21:14I don't know about you, but I don't really associate Turkey with amazing plants and wildlife.
21:22But they are here. Turkey, turns out, has incredible biodiversity.
21:30In fact, Turkey has almost as many endemic plant species as all of Europe put together.
21:35I think this is my stop.
21:38My destination was the Sarikamish Forest.
21:41John! John!
21:43Good to meet you.
21:46Lovely to meet you.
21:52John Åžekercioglu is one of Turkey's leading conservationists.
21:59So we are now in the Sarikamish Forest properties.
22:02We always keep an eye open for any wildlife that might pass by.
22:07Even brown bears, very early wolves during the day, and lynx are possible.
22:12So just keep an eye open.
22:13Brown bears, wolves and lynx.
22:15Yes, they're all here.
22:16Really?
22:17Oh yeah.
22:18They're here in the forest. That is very exciting.
22:22Can has been carrying out the first detailed survey of Turkey's brown bear population.
22:31Oh, there's a bear alarm!
22:34So Can has just had an alert from one of his bear traps,
22:39suggesting that maybe there's a bear that has been caught.
22:43We have caught a wolf once in one of these bear traps,
22:47so even a wolf is a possibility.
22:50And it's important to get there quickly for the animal's welfare,
22:53but presumably also so it doesn't escape and nothing else finds it trapped there.
22:59Exactly.
23:03Right, there's a van up ahead.
23:07So what do you think has happened?
23:09I don't know.
23:20Please don't go in there.
23:22If you didn't go in, we wouldn't have had an alarm.
23:27He activated the trap, got caught and pulled it out.
23:32And he's denying it. Of course we can see.
23:37So we are now setting it up.
23:39We set it up so that the bear is forced to enter the trap
23:43either this way or the opposite.
23:47There's a dead sheep in there, so the bear will come and eat it.
23:50There's another entrance here. Is there a trap here?
23:52Yep, right there.
23:53Where?
23:54Well, that's the point. You're not supposed to figure it out.
23:58Walk in there on all fours like a bear would.
24:00You want me to walk in there on all fours like a bear?
24:03Yeah, so you see how it works.
24:05OK.
24:06So go down on all fours.
24:09So just go in there. Go towards the sheep.
24:12Right, the sheep does look particularly inviting.
24:16You're not going to get to the sheep. Are you sure?
24:19Whoa!
24:20So then I... Oh, my goodness.
24:22Now pull, like a bear would.
24:24Look at that. So it will just pull away.
24:26Of course, he will try to pull out,
24:29but what happens is, after a couple of minutes,
24:31they just stop and kind of wait until we show up.
24:36Can and his team then sedate the bear and fit a radio collar
24:40so that its movements can be tracked.
24:42And they've made an extraordinary discovery.
24:46The data we collect has shown that some of the bears we collared
24:50migrate to the more productive temperate rainforests
24:53facing the Black Sea,
24:55where they have access to a lot of acorns and forest fruits,
24:58and then they migrate back.
25:00So this, I would say, is the most important discovery of the project.
25:03It's a global first.
25:04So these are the only bears of their kind in the world that migrate?
25:08We checked the entire literature.
25:10World's only known migratory brown bears.
25:12Amazing. Period.
25:16So the trap has been set,
25:18and there are other traps throughout the forest here.
25:21Hopefully later, there will be some bear activity.
25:25So far, Can has trapped and tracked more than 30 bears,
25:29and his research has resulted in a rare triumph
25:32for conservation and for wildlife in Turkey.
25:36It's pretty amazing here.
25:37It is very nice.
25:39Sarıkamış Forest.
25:40It has some of the most beautiful forests in the world.
25:44Sarıkamış Forest has some of the highest numbers and densities
25:48of brown bears in Turkey.
25:50These animals cover massive areas.
25:52You cannot have a sustainable viable wolf or bear population
25:56in a small city forest.
25:58So they have to be connected.
26:01We have commenced the government
26:03to create Turkey's first wildlife corridor.
26:07Can's wildlife corridor links and connects pockets of forest,
26:11and bears' fragmented habitat.
26:13His aim is to create an unbroken 100-mile band of forest
26:17stretching north all the way to the Black Sea,
26:20giving bears the chance to move freely
26:23and, crucially, spread their gene pool,
26:25which lowers their chances of extinction.
26:28This is an enormous environmental and conservation success,
26:32I think, for Turkey, isn't it?
26:34It's one of the few positive conservation stories
26:38that has come out of Turkey in the past decade.
26:43Despite the new forest corridor,
26:46the bears still face serious threats.
26:59Can's tracking shows that while some bears
27:02are using the wildlife corridor,
27:04others have stopped migrating.
27:08Straight ahead, one just went over the top.
27:10Gathering instead at their favourite diner.
27:13It's the Sarıkamış Landfill.
27:16Landfill? A dump.
27:18The town dump is the best place to see bears.
27:22Look at that!
27:24Oh, God!
27:26Oh, it's a huge, beautiful brown bear.
27:30Look at the size of that.
27:32Some of these males at this garbage dump,
27:35because, you know, they're feeding all the time,
27:37they do reach grizzly sizes up to 364 kilos.
27:41Wow.
27:42I can see the black shapes moving around.
27:46There's what?
27:47The maximum count was 42.
27:51I personally counted 33 in one night.
27:5433?
27:55Yeah, personally counted.
27:56At one time?
27:57Yeah, one time.
27:58That's extraordinary.
27:59Yeah.
28:00So they don't migrate
28:01because there is food here in the garbage dump?
28:03Right, I mean, migrating is quite work.
28:05You know, 250-kilometre round trip
28:07to eat acorns and fruit.
28:09I mean, why would you do that?
28:11So these bears have learned this behaviour,
28:13but there's a lot of, you know, plastic here,
28:15so they swallow plastic bags along the way,
28:17chemicals, so it's very unhealthy.
28:23The bears need to migrate through the forest corridor
28:26and eat a healthy diet and spread their genes around.
28:30At the town dump,
28:31it's not only a dangerous diet they're getting,
28:33but unwanted attention.
28:35See, what if the locals come, see?
28:37Just local guys.
28:38Yeah, it's not safe.
28:39Want to see bears, yeah.
28:40It's not safe because you get some people
28:42who get out of the car,
28:43and I've even seen people taking selfies
28:46with the bears right behind them.
28:48People get out of their cars next to the bears?
28:51Yeah.
28:52And we're worried it's going to lead to an attack one day
28:55and the bears will be blamed for it
28:57and they will be all called or killed.
29:00About four or five years ago,
29:02we said a gate needs to be installed.
29:04The gate was installed the next day.
29:06The problem is, within three days,
29:08that gate, that only garbage trunks could open,
29:12was dismantled and thrown away,
29:14what I was told by the garbage truck drivers,
29:17because it was too much of a hassle
29:19to get out, open the gate, to close it again.
29:22Yeah, so we just talked to the new governor of Sarikamish
29:26and he totally agreed with us,
29:28so we were hoping there would be a gate installed,
29:31like, that's automatic, just for garbage trucks,
29:34but it's like, you know, Groundhog Day.
29:37Every year we tell the same thing to different people
29:41again and again for, like, a decade now.
29:46It's saddening to see these majestic bears
29:49scrabbling around in plastic bags.
29:51They're a Turkish national treasure.
29:53The failure of the local authority to protect them
29:56is part of a much bigger problem in Turkey.
29:58Nationally, conservation hasn't just been a low priority,
30:02it's been forgotten.
30:14It's really sad, really disappointing.
30:16I think it's an area of life in Turkey
30:20where things really need to improve,
30:23where things really need to improve dramatically, drastically.
30:27Turkey is ranked 177th
30:31out of 180 countries for conservation.
30:35Two of the only countries that come beneath it
30:38are Somalia and Afghanistan.
30:40I mean, Turkey is not doing well
30:42when it comes to protecting something
30:45that is so fundamentally wonderful
30:47about this incredible country.
30:53HE WHISTLES
31:17I went north, towards the valleys and highlands
31:20of Turkey's Black Sea region,
31:22into another area of extraordinary beauty.
31:29I love those moments when just nature can be so stunning
31:34it brings a lump to your throat.
31:47Its deep valleys and rugged terrain
31:49has meant that this region has always been isolated
31:51and cut off from the rest of Turkey.
31:55But now, that might be about to change.
32:04So we think this is a relatively modest linking road
32:08connecting up to what will be called the Green Road.
32:12It's going to be built snaking through
32:14the upper hills and highlands here,
32:17more than 1,000 miles long.
32:20It's the kind of grand national infrastructure project
32:23that's marked the leadership of Turkey's president,
32:27Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
32:30It's very tricky.
32:31Part of the reason that President Erdogan
32:33is now quite possibly the most successful
32:36democratically elected politician in the world,
32:39he has won that many elections,
32:41is because he is building things.
32:43He is transforming the country.
32:45He is building roads, loads of them.
32:47And lots of people love that.
32:49But it doesn't endear him to everyone.
32:53The government says the Green Road
32:55will link up isolated communities
32:57and encourage tourism and economic development.
33:01But some locals here are unconvinced.
33:04People here have a bit of a reputation.
33:06Strong-minded, strong-willed, a bit eccentric.
33:10In an isolated and beautiful valley,
33:13Metin Akunca runs a bed and breakfast
33:16with a slight access issue.
33:21Lovely to meet you.
33:30Flipping heck!
33:32Metin, what on earth is this?
33:40What is the drop beneath your cable car?
33:58It turned out the crate had been built
34:00by a bloke in the local village.
34:02Right. OK.
34:10Oh, bloody hell!
34:13But Metin assured me he'd designed it
34:15to take the weight of a cow.
34:18It'll look pretty sturdy.
34:20OK.
34:21I'll see you on the other side.
34:38Oh, my God!
34:41It wobbles a bit
34:43in a rather scary way!
34:51This is terrifying and awesome
34:53all at the same time!
35:07Ha! Ha!
35:12Very good, Metin.
35:14Very good.
35:16Very good.
35:21What inspired you to create this system?
35:36Oh, my goodness!
35:40Oh, wow!
35:42Look at this!
35:46Oh!
35:49It's fantastic, Metin.
35:51Absolutely beautiful.
36:16CLASSICAL MUSIC
36:31Your eggs from your chickens.
36:35Your honey from your bees.
36:41From the outside.
36:46The idea of a road
36:48or a civilization
36:50is actually the nightmare
36:52of these mountains.
36:54I mean,
36:56a road to every hill,
36:58a road to every neighborhood,
37:00a road to the mezzanine,
37:02a road to the fountain,
37:04a road to the forest,
37:06there's no end to it.
37:08Roads have to go
37:10somewhere,
37:12but I'm talking about unnecessary roads.
37:15What do you mean,
37:17commercial road?
37:19What do you mean,
37:21commercial road?
37:49Do you think that Green Road
37:51is actually to encourage
37:53and enable mining?
38:11You keep living your incredible life.
38:13An inspiration to us all, Metin.
38:19Bye-bye, Metin.
38:21Bye-bye.
38:23You going to send me off?
38:25Hope to see you again.
38:27I hope so too.
38:29It is a bit tricky to get to,
38:31but Metin's extraordinary B&B
38:33gets five stars from me.
38:35Driving through these valleys,
38:37you do realise just how isolated
38:39the communities were
38:41before the arrival of roads.
38:43The villages are nestling
38:45in these incredibly steep valleys
38:47Historically, it was very difficult
38:49of course, before mobile phones,
38:51for people to communicate
38:53when they were on one side of the valley
38:55from their loved ones.
38:57But in the village up ahead,
38:59they came up with a solution.
39:03We are here.
39:17WHISTLING
39:22Mustafa still uses a language
39:24that's thought to have originated
39:26in these valleys hundreds of years ago.
39:37So just to be clear,
39:39many of you communicate here by whistling.
39:41WHISTLING
39:43Flipping, eh?
39:45WHISTLING
39:48That's a rather beautiful sound
39:50coming out of your mouth there.
40:06All the way up there?
40:08Wow!
40:13I can speak the same language.
40:15Eren.
40:17Does Eren speak whistling?
40:19Hello, Eren.
40:21Come and speak to Kader.
40:23WHISTLING
40:25WHISTLING
40:50It felt like time to go.
40:55Just to the north,
40:57I reach Turkey's Black Sea coast.
40:59The most powerful figure
41:01in recent Turkish history,
41:03President Erdogan,
41:05grew up around here.
41:07Huge posters glorifying him
41:09are everywhere.
41:11I can't stress enough
41:13what a significant figure he is
41:15in modern Turkey.
41:17He's a political colossus here.
41:19But Erdogan isn't the first
41:21controversial, charismatic politician
41:23to dominate Turkey.
41:25I headed to the nation's capital.
41:29The city of Ankara
41:31became Turkey's seat of government
41:33when the nation was founded in the 1920s
41:35by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
41:37His mausoleum
41:39still draws millions of Turks today.
41:41This is incredible.
41:45Look at the scale of this.
41:47All for one man.
41:55Atatürk,
41:57the father of the nation,
41:59closed Islamic schools,
42:01gave votes to women
42:03and aggressively insisted
42:05Turkey should be a secular state.
42:07Most Turks,
42:09but especially secular Turks,
42:11still revere Atatürk.
42:17Long live Turkey!
42:23The military here
42:25have long been seen
42:27as the ultimate defenders
42:29of Atatürk's ideals.
42:31They've launched a series of coups,
42:33particularly when they've thought
42:35a government has become too Islamic.
42:37Now President Erdogan's ruling party
42:39is openly Islamic.
42:41He thought he had the military under control.
42:43But then in 2016,
42:45the Turkish military launched another coup.
42:51So this is the Turkish Parliament building.
42:55On the night of the failed coup,
42:57several dozen MPs,
42:59Members of Parliament, lawmakers
43:01took shelter inside the building,
43:03partly as sanctuary and partly to defend it
43:05because they could hear gunfire
43:07in the streets around.
43:09And while they were inside,
43:11a Turkish Air Force fighter-bomber
43:13landed in the building.
43:15Can you imagine
43:17how bizarre that would be
43:19if you transposed that attack,
43:21that event,
43:23to London or Washington?
43:25What an assault on democracy that would be.
43:29The coup attempt was defeated.
43:31Erdogan emerged as a hero,
43:33a defender of democracy.
43:35People rallied to him.
43:37He blamed the coup on the secretive Gulen movement,
43:39led by a US-based Turkish preacher.
43:41A state of emergency was declared
43:43and a massive round-up of suspects began.
43:47It's since become a purge
43:49on an incredible scale.
43:51Tens of thousands, including army officers
43:53but also journalists, teachers and doctors
43:55have been arrested, detained or sacked.
43:59I'm trying to meet up with somebody
44:01who's been caught up in the purge
44:03but we can't meet too openly
44:05so we've come to a location
44:07outside the city.
44:09Hopefully,
44:11she's going to turn up.
44:15Nuriye Gulman
44:17is one of the few brave enough to speak out.
44:19She was suspended as a teacher
44:21without warning.
44:35She denies any link to the plotters.
44:39If you're an opponent
44:41and you don't think like them,
44:43they can arrest you tomorrow.
44:47We live in a country
44:49where most journalists
44:51are detained.
44:59They want to clean up
45:01and that's a fact
45:03but they're doing it
45:05to lighten the burden.
45:07It's a classified operation.
45:11It's not about the coup.
45:13It's about what the AKP
45:15wanted to do
45:17but couldn't before
45:19and they're doing it now.
45:23It's a very dark picture.
45:25They seem to be able
45:27to do whatever they want.
45:32Some say the purge is a legitimate reaction
45:34to a secret, dangerous organisation.
45:36Others fear it's being used
45:38to crush all opposition
45:40to Erdogan.
45:42He's elected and has huge support
45:44but some commentators now believe
45:46he wants to keep power forever
45:48even taking the country down a path
45:50towards dictatorship
45:52while also shifting Turkey
45:54to become a fully Islamic nation
45:56governed by religious principles
45:58and laws.
46:00They point to the enhanced role
46:02of the DNET,
46:04a new direction.
46:06I think I'm about to get as close as I will
46:08to the heart of power
46:10and influence in this country.
46:12I'm off to meet
46:14the man who's been described
46:16as the calm power in Turkey.
46:18The DNET is the
46:20religious authority that oversees
46:22Turkey's 85,000 mosques.
46:24It writes the crucial
46:26Friday sermons.
46:28The DNET is central to the lives
46:30of millions of people in this country
46:32but they don't know it.
46:34Under President Erdogan's rule,
46:36the budget of the DNET has quadrupled
46:38during the past decade.
46:40It's powerful and influential.
46:42I met the boss,
46:44Professor Mehmet Gormet.
46:46Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too.
46:48Nice to see you. Thank you.
46:50Thank you so much.
46:52OK.
46:54It's OK?
46:56Yes, it's OK.
46:58I've been practising.
47:00I would really like
47:02to try and understand
47:04the direction
47:06that Turkey is taking.
47:31None of these mosques
47:33can be called contrary
47:35to European values.
47:37In Europe, politics
47:39and the media
47:41lose their heart
47:43from time to time.
47:45While they should
47:47establish closer relations,
47:49on the contrary,
47:51we witness
47:53that they equate
47:55with the wrong.
47:57President Erdogan
47:59has said
48:01women can't be treated
48:03equally to men
48:05and that as good Turks
48:07they should have
48:09at least three children.
48:11But the professor
48:13was keen to stress
48:15Turkey's more liberal
48:17Islamic values.
48:30In the Islamic world,
48:32Turkey's always been
48:34a more tolerant,
48:36moderate voice
48:38than ultra-conservative
48:40countries like Saudi Arabia.
48:42President Erdogan
48:44has said that Turkey
48:46is the hope
48:48of the Islamic world.
48:50In the Middle East,
48:52we've seen areas
48:54that are in complete turmoil.
48:56Does the DNA have a role
48:58to play in guiding
49:00and inspiring Muslims
49:02around the world?
49:04I have no doubt about that.
49:06But that doesn't mean
49:08that we have any shortcomings
49:10or shortcomings.
49:12The general understanding
49:14that we inherited
49:16from history
49:18and that we have today
49:20is that it is more
49:22encompassing,
49:24that it will take everyone
49:26to change.
49:28I thought it was
49:30really interesting.
49:32Now I'm not looking
49:34to airbrush out
49:36the problems of this country
49:38from the treatment of minorities
49:40and women to human rights abuses,
49:42the quashing of free speech.
49:44There are terrible things
49:46happening here and yet
49:48in many of the neighbouring countries
49:50in this part of the world
49:52things are much, much worse.
49:54I really hope Turkey as a nation
49:56can deliver on the
49:58high morals
50:00that he said this country
50:02embodies.
50:04Below the offices of the DNET...
50:06Looks like we're going down to the car park.
50:08...work is already well underway
50:10to spread Turkey's religious messages
50:12and values around the globe.
50:14Look at this.
50:16So this
50:18is DNET TV.
50:20Here, brand spanking new
50:22state-of-the-art television and radio stations
50:24broadcast 24 hours a day.
50:28Oh my goodness,
50:30look, it's the gallery.
50:34Critics complain that DNET is
50:36the religious mouthpiece for a president
50:38intent on creating a more conservative,
50:40authoritarian nation.
50:42They get 7 million viewers
50:44here in Turkey alone.
50:46They have YouTube
50:48videos up that are watched by
50:50more than 25 million people.
50:52So there's a lot of influence
50:54coming from us
50:56through the channels.
50:58Erdogan's supporters say this is for the majority
51:00of Turks who are religious
51:02and they claim it allows the moderate
51:04values of Turkey to be broadcast
51:06around the Islamic world.
51:10It can be hard to get a handle on Turkey.
51:12Is it European or Middle Eastern?
51:14Religious or liberal?
51:16Perhaps it's a bit of both.
51:18For decades, people have been
51:20wondering and worrying
51:22about Turkey.
51:24And they've encouraged
51:26and pressed the Turks
51:28to make a choice between the East
51:30and the West, between being part
51:32of Europe or part of the Middle East.
51:34And lots of people
51:36said that Turkey needed to choose, it needed to make a
51:38decision. But the sense I have, the strong
51:40sense I have, is that Turkey's
51:42going to do something different.
51:44Turkey is not going to choose
51:46East or West. Turkey is going to
51:48choose its own destiny, it's going to take
51:50its own path. And that really
51:52matters because Turkey is powerful
51:54and it is influential, both in terms
51:56of religion and faith, but politically,
51:58militarily,
52:00and through culture as well. As I hope,
52:02I'm about to see.
52:04Turkey hasn't been so key
52:06to global affairs
52:08since the time this land was ruled
52:10by the Ottomans, part
52:12of the greatest Islamic empire the world
52:14has ever seen.
52:16Under President Erdogan,
52:18the popularity of the all-powerful
52:20Ottoman sultans, grand rulers,
52:22has soared.
52:24But Turkey is not
52:26the only country in the world
52:28that has seen the rise
52:30of the Ottoman Empire.
52:32The Turks are calling it
52:34Ottomania.
52:36Look at this.
52:40Merhaba.
52:42It's all very normal.
52:44I don't know why they're looking at us
52:46like we're out of place.
52:48Exactly.
53:02This is
53:04Magnificent Century Kosem,
53:06a huge period costume drama
53:08set within the sultan's royal palace.
53:10You might have missed it,
53:12but it's broadcast to the world,
53:14watched in prime time in scores of
53:16countries, and making lead actors
53:18like Farah Zeynep Abdullah, who partly
53:20grew up in Maidenhead, global superstars.
53:22You're a big star.
53:26In a mega drama,
53:28your one goes out to a quarter
53:30of the world.
53:32A quarter of the world?
53:34Scary.
53:36What role do you play?
53:38I play Faya, who is a
53:40Hungarian princess
53:42and a warrior at the same time.
53:44You're a warrior
53:46Hungarian princess.
53:48That's pretty cool.
53:50This drama is even popular
53:52in conservative Islamic countries,
53:54where the strong female characters
53:56have become heroines, and even
53:58heroes.
54:00I'm just admiring your empire.
54:02The show is the brainchild
54:04of executive producer Timur Savca.
54:28Timur's drama
54:30has even been blamed
54:32for rising divorce rates.
54:48You've created
54:50an incredible world.
54:59Have you heard about this?
55:00Men have been coming
55:02from some of the Gulf states
55:04to Istanbul
55:06to get
55:08their mustaches
55:10cosmetically enhanced
55:12so they can look like a sultan.
55:14Is this true?
55:16Yes.
55:18Is this true?
55:20Yes.
55:22Is this true?
55:24Yes.
55:26Is this true?
55:28Yes.
55:30Unbelievable.
55:34I'm getting roped in
55:36for the production.
55:40What do you think?
55:44It's a tricky moment.
55:46I rather like it.
55:50Are you seriously saying I have to say a line?
55:52Yes.
55:54Hünkârım.
55:56Şehzade Beyazıt.
55:58Şehzade Beyazıt.
56:00Şehzade Beyazıt geldiler.
56:02Geldiler.
56:04Hünkârım Şehzade Beyazıt
56:06geldi.
56:08Sorry to interrupt, but they're ready
56:10and they're waiting for us.
56:12Wow.
56:14Thank you very much.
56:16Hünkârım Şehzade.
56:18Hünkârım Şehzade.
56:25You cannot act
56:27what you want.
56:29You must stay like this.
56:31Right hand over the left.
56:40Hünkârım.
56:42Hünkârım.
56:54Hünkârım.
57:04Hünkârım Şehzade Beyazıt geldiler.
57:06Yes.
57:20It's all right.
57:22Perfect.
57:30My coach, my men.
57:32This is a huge
57:34Turkish success story.
57:36A project with a massive audience,
57:38a global reach that promotes
57:40a powerful story
57:42and strong characters.
57:44It is a lot of fun to be
57:46just a tiny, tiny part of it.
57:52I headed back to Istanbul
57:54where the real-life palaces
57:56of the former Ottoman sultans
57:58and the magnificent mosques they built
58:00still draw millions of visitors.
58:02This is close to where my journey
58:04around Turkey began
58:06and it's where it ends.
58:08I do feel that my travels
58:10in this country have shown me
58:12many of the huge problems
58:14and issues that Turkey is facing
58:16and nobody should deny they exist.
58:18I do also think this journey
58:20has shown me much of what's best
58:22about this great country.
58:32TURKEY
59:02TURKEY