Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?


Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? is a Turkish television drama series produced by Ay Yapım and broadcast on Kanal D. The series is based on Vedat Türkali's scenario, Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?, which was made into a film in 1986, Hülya Avşar as Fatmagül. The series is written by the duo Ece Yörenç and Melek Gençoğlu. The soundtrack was composed and conducted by Toygar Işıklı.

Plot

Fatmagül Ketenci is a lower-class dairy-farm girl who lives in the village Ildır on the Aegean coast belonging to the administrative district of Çeşme, in Izmir province, with her too simple brother Rahimi, his son and his wife Muqadas who hates her for no reason. Fatmagül plans to marry her childhood love Mustafa, who is a fisherman. They are only waiting for Mustafa to earn much money to finish their house construction before marriage. Then there is the Yasaran family, the rich upper-class businessmen and their political social elites. Yasaran Family is in Izmir for the engagement ceremony of the son of the elder brother Resat Yasaran to the daughter of a politician. Selim is his son and Erdogan his nephew. These cousins have a third friend Vural who also belongs to the upper-class. All these three have spent their childhood in Izmir but as the businesses of their fathers grew, they moved to Istanbul. They have a childhood friend in Izmir, whom they meet on yearly basis when they come there for summer vacations. This fourth friend of theirs is the hero - Kerim Ilgaz.
Kerim Ilgaz is a well-mannered boy, a blacksmith apprentice by profession, who lives with his aunt Meryem Aksoy, known affectionately as "Ebe Nine", who is a homeopath. Kerim was orphaned during childhood so Meryem brought him up as her own son. He works as a carpenter in the workshop of his father's friend. Kerim though unlike his rich friends, is over-powered by their presence. He considers himself important with them and hence, enjoys their company.
Fatmagül is desperate to be married-off to Mustafa, not only because she loves him but also to get rid away from her nagging sister-in-law. Her desire for Mustafa and an independent married life is growing with time as Muqadas's hatred is growing towards her. Except for Mustafa, she has no one to share her feelings with. While in Izmir, Erdogan, Selim, Vural and Kerim see Fatmagul and the three rich tease her as young boys do. Kerim doesn't like this. Then at Selim's engagement, Keirm comes face-to-face with her as she is working their with her sister-in-law.
The big event of the season is the engagement of Selim, to the politician Turaner Alagöz's daughter Meltem. Kerim after attending Selim's engagement, joins his friends for an after-party. All four go for drinking and drug binge near the sea. Mustafa is leaving for a night fish-catch. Fatmagül is coming to see him off. She passes from the area where the drunk boys are singing. Kerim sees her and on recognizing her shouts to his friends 'Guys! Its the same girl'!! Then when she tries to run, Kerim gets hold of her while the other three come near her.
The tragedy occurs. Fatmagül is gang-raped. The four boys are shown to be involved in the crime as she faints when Kerim comes on her. The next morning, a traumatized Fatmagül is discovered by Ebe Nine while she is picking herbs. The four boys have already left the crime scene. Kerim drops off Selim and Erdogan at their place and himself goes with Vural to his house. Kerim is left deeply disturbed by the event and is even more distressed to know that the girl has been rescued by his mother. The rich boys are confident in the power of their rich fathers and are sure to be saved. As Muqadas approaches the Yasarans threatening of giving their name to the police, with the course of events, the Yasarans save their sons and forcefully marry Kerim to Fatmagül. Kerim accepts the blame of solely raping Fatmagül for protecting his friends and also because he believes himself to be guilty. Muqadas is their accomplice in all this. Mustafa is hurt primarily because of his fiance' being raped. He burns their house in front of Fatmagül but afterwards believes Yasaran’s false stories of Fatmagül being involved in Kerim. Fatmagül and Kerim's families sell their properties and move to İstanbul to start a new life.
The story develops in Istanbul. Fatmagül hates Kerim. She insults him, abuses him, spits at him, tries to kill him, etc. Kerim is not sure whether he really raped her, as he was drunk and drugged. But Fatmagül believes that he did it as his was the last face she saw before fainting. Then Vural who is having little traumas of guilt, tells Kerim what he knows that; Kerim did not rape Fatmagul. In fact, when she laid there, fainted under open sky, he just sat beside her. Kerim tells this to Fatmagül. She believes it but it is of no importance for her as she hates him and considers him as much as culprit as the other three.
Things become complicated due to the exploitations of the Yaşarans and their unscrupulous lawyer, Münir Telci, who wants to protect them, as well as Mustafa, who seeks revenge as he believes that Kerim and Fatmagül had an affair from the beginning. As a result, both the Yaşarans and Mustafa start harassing Kerim, Fatmagül and their relatives. Kerim initially wild and exhausted with Fatmagül's behavior, is ready to leave her and divorce her as she desires. But when he is leaving, Kerim realizes that he loves Fatmagül, and this was love at first sight. Before leaving he writes a letter to her, telling her to move on in her life and that one day he will come and ask for forgiveness from her.
Fatmagül reads this letter. Later-on the viewers are shown that this was the moment when Fatmagül fell in love with Kerim as his words softened her heart for him and she believed in what he wrote to her. Anyways, Kerim returns and then the year long, tough but with a happy-end path of Kerim and Fatmagul starts.
However, even after she has already developed a soft corner for him, Fatmagül is in a state of self-denial about her feelings for Kerim and when one day she sees Vural hugging him, she believes him still to be in contact with her rapists, which actually is not the reality. In order to prove his innocence and love for her, Kerim files her rape case and asks the police to arrest him, Vural and the Yaşarans, after which Fatmagül finally accepts his of being honest with her. Mustafa after knowing the truth asks Fatmagül to forgive him, but she rejects him. Things take a turn when the Yaşarans start threatening Kerim and Fatmagül, trying to quickly finish the case, while also using the greedy and weak Mustafa against them. During the first trial, the Yaşarans falsify their testimonies. They also resort to using several bribed witnesses. Vural then is accidentally killed by Mustafa.
In the second season, Fatmagül also confesses her love for Kerim. After the Yasarans forcefully protect Mustafa against Fatmagül, he abducts her, stating he loves her more than Kerim and that he regrets leaving her. Kerim eventually rescues his wife and they escape. Mustafa is arrested and imprisoned for his crimes. At the wedding of Kerim and Fatmagül, Mustafa intentionally tries to escape from police custody and is therefore, shot to death. Meanwhile, Selim and Erdoğan surreptitiously move to Malta where they briefly hide from the authorities. However, they are forced to return to Istanbul after Erdoğan engages in a fight at a nightclub and is arrested.
Eventually, Fatmagül confronts them in court and they are charged for their part in her rape, essentially bringing down the Yaşaran empire. The series ends with Fatmagül and Kerim expecting their first child. In the final scene, they walk down the street in Izmir holding hands, expressing that their love cannot be shaken despite the difficult challenges they faced and that when a woman is strong like Fatmagül and has the support of a strong husband like Kerim, even a crime like 'rape' cannot escape justice.

Characters

Series overview

International broadcasts

Fatmagül gained a lot of popularity in Turkey, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, and the Arabic countries. It also dubbed in many languages notably Persian.

Iran and Afghanistan

Turkish television drama is extremely popular in Iran, where they are dubbed into Persian. The song by Iranian singer has been prepared and performed for the title track of the series Fatmagul.
Among the most popular series are Fatmagul, Aşk-ı Memnu and Ezel.
The most popular Turkish show is Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?. Another series as Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki, Beni Affet, Effet, Aşk-ı Memnu, and Adını Feriha Koydum are popular too.

Balkans and Southeastern Europe

In Kosovo, the most popular TV shows in December 2012 were Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?, which ranked top of all programmes and Aşk ve Ceza, which came in third according to data by Index Kosova. In Serbia, research from January 2013 indicates that the top two Turkish shows in TV were Muhteşem Yüzyıl, which ranked fourth, and Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki, which came in seventh. Fatmagul was one of the most popular shows in Macedonia which irked the government to passed a bill to restrict broadcasts of Turkish series during the day and at prime time in order to reduce the Turkish impact on Macedonian society.

Bangladesh

The Bangla dubbed version of Fatmagul started on Deepto TV from 2 June 2019, Saturday to Friday, on 6:30pm and 9:30pm. Deepto TV broadcast the finale of the hit Bangla-dubbed series which aired at 6pm and 9:30pm on Monday, 23 December 2019. This series became one of the most popular Turkish series in Bangladesh.

Ethiopia

Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? was well received by Ethiopians due to the popularity of other Turkish dramas that had been previously shown in Ethiopia. Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? was dubbed in Amharic with title "ቅጣት" or "kitat" and aired on Kana TV.

Pakistan

Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? was the second most popular Turkish series in Pakistan which was ranked top in 2013 above Pakistani shows like Zindagi Gulzar Hai, Kankar and Aunn Zara. The series averaged 16% TV ratings with the viewership above 25 million in Pakistani urban and rural market. Aşk-ı Memnu, was the highest rated Turkish series which broke all records in 2012.

Arab world

In 2013, the most popular Turkish shows worldwide were Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?, Aşk-ı Memnu and Muhteşem Yüzyıl. Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? has increased the popularity of Istanbul as a tourist destination among Arabs. With Aşk-ı Memnu's popularity Beren Saat became the female sensation in Arab television which led to a generally higher viewership for Fatmagul.

Chile

Binbir Gece and Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? remain the two most watched Turkish shows in Chile.

International remake

In India the show has been remade by Indian TV channel Star Plus in Hindi under the title of Kya Qusoor Hai Amala Ka?. This is the first official remake of the series. The show aired from 3 April 2017 during the noon slot. The show features Pankhuri Awasthy as Amala, Anant Joshi as Dev and Rajveer Singh as Abeer. The original show titled Fatmagul first aired on Zindagi TV and became a rating success and thus the remake was commissioned.