Funny & nice topic,
I think the Turkish soap opera took such a huge attention due to several factors:
1. huge promotion campaign on the most watched channels namely (MBC4, MBC2)
2. something new (the actors,actresses, clothes...etc. not the idea because the core story is a damn boring cliche !)
3.repeating the episode 3/day which is in a way or another forcing you at least to watch bits.
DO I WATCH IT? NO, but i have seen parts of it cause it is there whenever you turn the TV on.
WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT IT? this interest will decrease with time ...remember the first mexican soap opera (mary Elina) everybody watched it while after that nobody cared to follow all the other mexican soap operas .
my belief, these soap operas are created for certian groups of people namely retired old people( ladies mainly) , housewives, teenagers . cause all of these people having lots of spare time which needed to be filled with cheap entertainment, but since our societies are going backwords and the majority of peoplep are HADIKA at the current time so everybody is watching.
a last word, Muhanned is a very beautiful man even Brad Pitt looks less hot next to him

and that is one additional factor for the extra attention . i mean if you have the choice between watching an arabic soap opera which contains less attractive people, less interesting decoration, less elegant clothes or a turkish one i guess you will be watching the turkish.
thanks
Farah Baha