It's just fiction, you Ottomaniacs!

Erospolis has had enough of Ottomaniacs who confuse fact and fiction, as well as the elitist historians who are only too eager to scan Ottoman soap operas to take umbrage with the details"How dare Hollywood portray Anne Boleyn, the brave and intelligent mother of Elizabeth I, as a hysterical slut who slept with her brother?" said Queen Elizabeth II. "I ask all patriotic British people to boycott the movie and I ask the producer to take steps to correct this shame committed against our proud ancestors."

"We regret that the movie 'Desiree' includes a scene where the matriarch of the Swedish Bernadotte Dynasty, Queen Desideria, smooches at the age of 15 with Napoleon Bonaparte, then an insignificant Jacobin general," announced the Swedish Embassy in a statement. "Our Crown Prince, aided by the Constitutional Court and Royal Legal Counsel, will take legal action against this historical error."

Of course the above is pure nonsense. They did not. Nor are they likely to. Unlike the dystopian universe of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, where the characters in the wall-sized TV screens are called "family," most people can distinguish between fact and fiction on TV. 

That is why I am amazed that fanatical Ottomaniacs and elitist republicans in Turkey are getting hysterical over historical soap operas in general and the new TV series "Magnificent Century Kösem Sultan" in particular.

The (renewed) controversy comes in the wake of a new Ottoman soap opera, "Magnificent Century Kösem Sultan." A  sequel to the prime-time "Magnificent Century," which captivated the Turkish public between 2011 and 2014, "Kösem" picks up intra-palace intrigues 24 years after Süleyman the Magnificent's death, this time around the life of Ahmed I and his Greek...