Why did Nursema, Sönmez and Pembe die in Kızılcık Şerbeti? How did Ceren Karakoç, Aliye Uzunatağan and Sibel Taşçıoğlu leave the series?

13 October 2026 — Season 5 of Kızılcık Şerbeti (Cranberry Sorbet) brought viewers two losses: Nursema and Sönmez. In the weeks since, both actresses have stopped keeping quiet. Ceren Karakoç, who played Nursema from the first episode on 28 October 2022, said in an Ayşe Arman interview released in parts from 8 October that her job was ended even though she had agreed to the new season; Aliye Uzunatağan, who played Sönmez for four seasons, said on TGRT Haber's Yasemin'in Penceresi on 4 October that her character was killed off because she asked for a raise. In the part of the same interview reported on 11 October, Karakoç also described how Sibel Taşçıoğlu, who left a year and a half earlier, lost Pembe. Three farewells, three accounts, and against them the words of producer Faruk Turgut from June. This file puts the three side by side, dates who said what, and writes nothing that is not in the sources.

How did Nursema die, and what did Karakoç say?

In the season finale, episode 138 (22 May 2026), the car carrying Nursema and İlhami crashed: according to Gazete Kritik, quoting Show TV's official episode summary, a truck coming from the opposite direction overturned, İlhami lost control and the car rolled over. In August there was no official statement that the character had died; on 13 August Onedio, citing journalist Birsen Altuntaş, wrote that the new season would open after a six-month time jump with Abdullah and Ulvi praying at the grave of their children Nursema and İlhami. According to GZT, episode 139 on 18 September made clear that Nursema had died. Asked by Ayşe Arman "You didn't know you'd be killed in a crash, is that right?", Karakoç replied: "No. There was no such information, it never came." GZT, Halk TV and Mynet reported her account of the meeting with the producer in the same words: "My producer said 'We're continuing next season, see you.' We agreed on everything and I went on holiday. Then the production company called and summoned me urgently, and that's where I understood. My job was terminated." Onedio's report of 8 October differs: the producer's words were "We're continuing", the parting words "Have a good holiday, see you in August", and the sentence "Your job was terminated" was completed by Ayşe Arman. Three outlets give the sentence to Karakoç, Onedio to the host; this page records both. Karakoç also said that because the decision reached her so late she could not sign with another project, that she was wronged, and that she has not watched the new season. In a segment Onedio reported on 13 October she said "Of course I can leave the series, as the script requires," and that she had imagined a "happy ending" for Nursema; that her objection was to the written ending rather than to leaving is Onedio's reading.

The farewell post and a claim

Karakoç announced her departure on social media on 11 August 2026; Cumhuriyet quoted the message: "Sometimes life brings not the farewells we planned but the farewells chosen for us. What remains is the enormous love you always made me feel. Thank you for everything you gave me, Nursema... Goodbye for now, hoping to meet in new stories." Her line "I never thought my farewell with Nursema would be like this" was read that day as a sign that the exit was not her plan; Gazete Kritik noted on 12 August that neither the actress nor the production had explained the reason. One claim about the background is circulating: according to GZT and Onedio, journalist Müge Dağıstanlı linked the exit to a photo Karakoç posted on 9 July 2026 with former cast members Sibel Taşçıoğlu, Sıla Türkoğlu, Emrah Altıntoprak and Özge Özacar, captioned "Friends". This is a journalist's claim; Karakoç did not comment on it in the interview, and this page does not treat it as fact. According to Onedio, with Karakoç gone only two names remain from the first episode without interruption: Evrim Alasya and Barış Kılıç.

The return claim (14 October 2026)

Nursema's gravestone was shown in the first episode of season 5, episode 139, aired on 18 September. On 14 October journalist Birsen Altuntaş wrote on her own site that Ceren Karakoç is "returning to the team"; the report cites no named source or official statement, and does not say in which episode the return will come or how Nursema will be brought back into the story. Onedio, GZT, Medyascope and Gazete Kritik carried the report the same day, all attributing it to Altuntaş; none offered separate confirmation, and according to Gazete Kritik neither Gold Film nor Show TV issued a statement confirming the return. The claim came after a change in the writing team: according to an 8 October Haberler.com report attributed to Altuntaş, Melis Civelek and Zeynep Gür, who had written the series since the first episode, disagreed with the production over the direction of the script and the two sides parted ways. On 9 October Gold Film announced that the two writers had left the project "as of episode 143" and thanked them; the statement gives no reason for the exit and names no new writers. Altuntaş also wrote on 14 October that Ozan Yurdakul, Meryem Gür, Burcu Över and Caner Güler have started writing the new episodes; these names are not in the production's statement. As of 14 October no public response from Karakoç to the return report was found in the sources reviewed.

Why did Sönmez die, and what did Uzunatağan say?

Sönmez's death was revealed in the new season through a conversation between Kıvılcım and Çimen; Onedio reported it that way on 25 September. Aliye Uzunatağan appeared on TGRT Haber's Yasemin'in Penceresi; the channel's report dated 4 October presents her as "this week's guest" and quotes her: "For 4 years I never opened my mouth, whatever they gave I said 'fine'. In season 5 I asked. When I asked for a raise they killed me off." Onedio carried a longer version on 8 October: "At the end of every season they sent me off somewhere. Now I understand: Mrs Aliye might leave if she asks for her fee... And for 4 years I didn't open my mouth. Whatever they gave, I said fine. In the fifth year I asked for my fee to be raised. When I didn't ask they always kept me alive, but here they killed me." According to TGRT Haber, the actress said she was told to "faint" while shooting her last scene and understood at that moment that her character would be killed and she would leave. That is the actress's own interpretation; there is no statement from the production about what was said on set. Uzunatağan was born on 24 December 1951, is from Çanakkale and graduated from Istanbul University State Conservatory; she is also known as Saliha in Kara Melek.

The producer's account and the contradiction

Faruk Turgut, owner of Gold Film and the series' producer, discussed Uzunatağan's exit in June 2026 on İzzet Çapa ile Paşa Paşa Muhabbetler, a programme on Fatih Altaylı's YouTube channel. According to Onedio on 29 June, he said they had similar fee discussions every season; his most quoted sentence appears in Onedio's report of 23 September as "Every year Mrs Aliye has this kind of problem: 'I'm indispensable to this series, I want this much money,' she says," and in Hürriyet on 24 September as "Every year Mrs Aliye has this problem: 'I'm indispensable to this series, I want this much money,' she says." Turgut also said: "In the end I run the business side of this. I'm obliged to keep this going by distributing the budget I receive to everyone as fairly as possible," and "You end up having to say 'sorry' to an actor who says 'I want this much', because you're managing 150 people there." He argued that cast changes do not affect ratings. The contradiction is plain: Turgut says "every year"; Uzunatağan says she made no request for four years and asked for a raise only in the fifth. The two accounts exclude each other, and no document showing which is accurate is public. According to Onedio, after the programme aired Işıl Yücesoy posted a message on social media that began "Unfortunately I came across a very unfortunate statement today about my dear artist friend Aliye Uzunatağan" and continued: "You can take artists' jobs from their hands, you can ignore them with sterile arguments. But you can never erase the honourable labour of all these years."

Uzunatağan's three statements are not on one line

The first came at an event on the evening of 22 September; Onedio's report of 23 September reads: "My professional manners do not allow me to talk about the work I do. That's the kind of person I am. I'm very fond of Mr Faruk. There has been a misunderstanding. I wish Mr Faruk had talked to me before saying these things." Hürriyet's wording of 24 September is the same with minor differences and without the sentence "That's the kind of person I am." She summed up her exit as "It was a job I loved, a script I adored from the start. This was as far as it went." The second came on 25 September in Onedio: "I played it with great pleasure, adored it, and it passed. But that was it, enough," and "I have very dear friends still acting in it. There is no problem at all." The third is the TGRT Haber interview of 4 October: the raise request and "they killed me off". The actress who spoke of a "misunderstanding" and "no problem at all" in September described her fee request as the reason for her exit in October. This page gives all three with their dates and does not choose which of her statements is final. No response from Faruk Turgut after 4 October was found in the sources reviewed.

Pembe's farewell and Karakoç's account

Pembe Ünal, played by Sibel Taşçıoğlu, was taken to intensive care in episode 96 on 11 April 2025 after eating a cake injected with poison on Işıl's orders; according to Hürriyet, the episode 97 trailer made clear that the patient the doctor "lost" was Pembe. Milliyet quoted Taşçıoğlu's farewell: "Today I say goodbye to a story I gave life to from the deepest part of my heart for 3 seasons." At the time the actress unfollowed screenwriter Zeynep Gür on Instagram; Gür replied: "Honestly, I learned from the news that she unfollowed me. This was a matter of story. I've always thought professionally and will continue to." Hürriyet wrote in 2025 that claims of a quarrel or a move to another series were unconfirmed; on TV8's Gel Konuşalım it was said the actress learned of her exit by surprise a week earlier. In May 2025 Taşçıoğlu said: "After my own last episode I followed one or two episodes to see what happens in the story. After that, honestly, I didn't." On 8 October 2026 Ceren Karakoç described that farewell from the inside for the first time: "Sibel Taşçıoğlu too, we were on set, and she learned that her character would die one episode later that day, on set, while filming. She too went to the production and learned it there. I think there's something like this in the sector." No response from Taşçıoğlu to this account was found in the sources reviewed. On this site she appears in the casts of other series (Bir Zamanlar Çukurova, Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, Çarpıntı, Güneşin Doğduğu Yer); the Pembe role is not registered in the TMDB cast list.

Known and unknown

As of 13 October 2026, known: Nursema left the story dead after a crash in episode 139; Sönmez's death was given through dialogue in the same season; Pembe died across episodes 96–97. Ceren Karakoç says her job was terminated, Aliye Uzunatağan says her character was killed after a raise request, and Karakoç says Sibel Taşçıoğlu learned of the death on set; Faruk Turgut tied the exit to a fee dispute in June and claimed it recurred "every year". Unknown: any response from Gold Film or Faruk Turgut to Karakoç's and Taşçıoğlu's accounts; the fee Uzunatağan asked for and the production's offer; when Nursema's death was written; the three actresses' next projects. This site's Kızılcık Şerbeti cast comes from the TMDB record plus a manually verified layer; the roles of Ceren Karakoç, Aliye Uzunatağan and Sibel Taşçıoğlu in this series are not in that list, which is why Karakoç and Uzunatağan have no actor page here. This page relies only on public sources, does not present an actress's account as fact, does not resolve the contradiction, and will be updated when the production responds.