Ertugrul's Alangoya thanks Pakistan for supporting Azerbaijan over Armenia conflict

Konul Nagiyeva is a Turkish actress of Azerbaijani descent, who breathed life into "Alangoya," a fierce Mongol warrior and the sister of Noyan, a military commander, in the fourth season of the globally-acclaimed historical TV series Resurrection: Ertugrul.

However, even though she is the sibling of Ertugrul Ghazi’s arch nemesis and a spy in the show, she has revealed she’s also a fierce advocate for human rights as she thanked Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for voicing firm support to Baku amid the ongoing military conflict with Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

“I want to thank the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for the support that he has been extending to my country Azerbaijan. I am generally someone who doesn’t pay attention to politics but the ongoing war in the Nagorno-Karabakh region is very painful and I am hoping that we get justice soon. I am not someone who likes war but there are times when there is so much injustice that there can’t be any peace,” Nagiyeva said during an online interview in which she related her experience in the Turkish TV series to Dawn Images on Monday.

Sharing her childhood memories, Nagiyeva said she was constantly worried for her father and grandfather who were both involved in the military.

Drawing comparisons between herself and Alangoya, the 38-year-old actress said, “At that young age, I hated how the Armenians were massacring my people. But we can either choose to live in a state of war or make peace and I have always preferred to be peaceful. Alangoya, on the other hand, chose war. I don’t know what her childhood was like.”

Fresh clashes erupted on Sept. 27 between Baku and Yerevan, and Armenia has since continued its attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces, even violating humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

In two attacks on Ganja, a major Azerbaijani city far from the front line, Armenian missiles killed two dozen civilians, including children, and injured scores of others.

Last week, Armenia targeted civilians visiting a graveyard in the western city of Terter, killing four and injuring as many.

A second cease-fire went into effect Oct. 17 after the Oct. 10 truce -- meant to allow an exchange of prisoners and the recovery of bodies -- was breached by Armenia.

Nagiyeva also expressed her astonishment regarding the immense popularity of the historical show sweeping Pakistan.

“My agent called me and asked me if I knew that people were searching my name in Pakistan. I was surprised. Why would they be searching my name there?” she said, expressing her desire to visit the South Asian country in the future.

I would love to visit Pakistan, she says, adding: “Earlier, my knowledge of Pakistan was restricted to what I knew from Wikipedia; that Pakistan and Azerbaijan supported each other, the capital was Islamabad and the languages spoken were Urdu and English. Now, however, I want to know so much more about this country.”

Often described as the Turkish Game of Thrones, Resurrection: Ertugrul depicts the 13th century Anatolia and tells the story before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. It illustrates the struggle of Ertugrul Ghazi, father of the empire's first leader.

According to the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV), 133.38 million people have so far watched the drama series from April 25- May 14. Also, its episodes are trending on YouTube in Pakistan every day.

In just 20 days, since the series with Urdu dubbing started riding on the airwaves, PTV’s YouTube channel has registered exponential rise in its viewership with 2.1 million subscribers, shattering all previous records.