TURKEY’S STATE RADIO TO BEGIN ARMENIAN-LANGUAGE BROADCAST

Hurriyet
March 20 2009
Turkey

Turkey’s state radio will launch an Armenian-language channel, reports
said on Friday in the latest in a series of planned foreign language
broadcasting mediums being launched by the state.

The move comes as Ankara and Yerevan have been engaged in a
normalization process between the neighboring countries that for
decades have had no diplomatic relations.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan also said Wednesday that
state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corp (TRT) would launch a
radio station broadcasting in Kurdish.

The radio channels broadcasting in Armenian and Kurdish will go on
air in "two to three months", Reuters and CNNTurk reported citing
Anatolian Agency.

"At this stage, we will refrain from any comments," an Armenian
Foreign Ministry spokesman told Reuters when asked about the report
of the planned radio station on Friday.

TRT also plans to launch a Persian TV channel and a news channel
broadcasting in English next year, Friday’s reports added.

Turkey recently took steps to boost the cultural and democratic rights
of Kurds with the Jan. 1 launch of TRT-6, a TV channel that airs in
Kurdish 24 hours a day.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress