The video posted on the gendarmerie's official Twitter account shows men in red uniforms play music. "Winter is here. Let it be, as long as there is gendarmerie, everyone is safe!” the post said.
In 2012 the four teachers at the İzmir Maltepe Military High School were discharged from the army after they showed Game of Thrones to their students as a way of helping them to improve their English. The official military communique that followed suggested instead that the show was somehow an "insult to Turkishness."
"Even though it is not directly said, it is easily understood by the audience [that the characters - Dothrakis are portraying Turks]," a report stated.
The final report, released by a committee of instructors, claimed the series contained "pornographic elements" and "perverted and violent methods of sexual intercourse." The report also mentioned that the show encouraged alcohol consumption.
One of the expelled teachers made an individual application to the Constitutional Court, which ordered a retrial. However, the top court said the teacher was not tried fairly and that his right to a fair trial has been violated. The Constitutional Court later returned the file to the Turkey’s Supreme Military Administrative Court.
In 2014, the Turkish army has updated its set of regulations for the high school academies that it administers, inserting an article in the chapter for "protection of students." It advised a ban on screening films or shows that depict "sexual exploitation, pornography, exhibitionism, abuse, harassment and all negative behaviours." At the same time, the army has introduced Islamic classes, which will centre on “basic religious education, the Koran and the life of the Prophet Muhammad”.
