NEW RADIO GIVES OUT DIVERSE VOICES

Hurriyet
April 10 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – Young people from different ethnic identities who found
the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT’s,
initiative to broadcast in various languages insufficient have come
together and founded a radio station.

"Nor Radyo" (New Radio) is available online and broadcasts in Armenian,
Kurdish and Homshetsi, an Armenian dialect, for now. Broadcasts
in Syriac and Greek are expected to follow soon. Nor Radyo, at
, started broadcasting on Jan. 17 and is aired
every evening between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. The Jan. 17 launch date was
symbolic as it was the day Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist
and editor-in-chief of daily Agos, was assassinated.

Due to financial constraints, the station’s organizers haven’t been
able to rent a studio for the shows and the broadcasts are done from
homes. Radio show hosts Sayat Tekir, Oyku Ozcinik, Sevan Garabetoglu
and Bercan AktaÅ~_ spoke to Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review
and said they do not accept guests at their homes during broadcast
hours and communicate with each other on MSN messenger during those
times. AktaÅ~_, the youngest of the radio hosts, is a 16-year-old
student of Kurdish origin. AktaÅ~_ does a weekly news review every
Friday from 9 to 11 p.m. AktaÅ~_ said he does not follow the broadcasts
of TRT 6, a recently launched channel that broadcasts in Kurdish.

"I do not believe in the TRT’s sincerity," he said. All of the shows
on Nor Radyo have different formats.

Ozcinik, an anthropologist, produces and hosts a show called
"Topluigne" (Pin). Although she is an ethnic Turk, Ozcinik got
involved in the project to support her friends from different ethnic
backgrounds. "I have discovered the richness I was forcibly torn apart
from as a Turk; that is why I have preferred to be with them here,"
she said.

Ozcinik said mentions of ethnic cultures in Turkey are only based on
cuisine. "When we mention the Armenians, we talk about appetizers;
when we mention Greeks, we talk about stuffed vegetables. The colors
of Turkey are not just appetizers and stuffed vegetables," she said.

Tekir’s show, "AnuÅ~_abur," is rather different from the
others. "AÅ~_ure" in Turkish, is wheat pudding with various dried
nuts and fruits, known in English as Noah’s pudding. "AnuÅ~_abur,
hence the name, features all of the diversities and tastes in it,"
Tekir said and added that he is hosting his show in Turkish because
he is not fluent in Armenian. "It is hard to find someone to host the
show in Armenian because, although we attend schools in the Armenian
community, the amount of education received in the mother tongue is
insufficient," he said. "We cannot express ourselves."

Computer, microphone suffice for broadcast

Garabetoglu hosts his show, "Sevani Yerki Tzank" (Sevan’s Music
List), in Armenian, unlike Tekir. The show features Armenian folk
and classical music. The hosts are happy with broadcasting over
the Web. A microphone and a computer are enough for us, they said,
adding that they, as the youth of Turkey, came together to raise a
free voice and to walk toward the future with steps of peace.