Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 1 2009
Armenian media talks to Turkey in Turkish
It is not unusual to see English and Russian versions of Armenian news
sites. But something unusual has started to occur recently, as some
news sites in Armenia have added a Turkish language section to their
pages.
On the front page of Tert.am, the words, `Å?imdi Türkçe’ or `Now in
Turkish’ appear brightly colored in fuchsia. Just a click away, it is
possible to see the headline story on the Turkish page, which was
launched only a couple of weeks ago: `Prosperous Armenia Party Will
Vote against Protocol Ratification Only in Case of Preconditions.’ Two
advertisements also appear on Tert.am’s Turkish front page.
Sonya Apresova, an editor from Tert.am, said they have 12 percent
growth each day in page views of the Turkish section of the site and
that their visitors are not only from Turkey, but also from Armenia,
the United States and Europe, especially in Germany, where about 2.5
million people of Turkish decent live.
When it comes to their visitors from Turkey, Apresova said that they
are mostly from Ä°stanbul, but overall visitors from 16 cities have
checked out their Turkish portal, including Ankara, Adana, Bursa,
İzmir, Manisa, Antalya, Diyarbakır, Erzurum and Samsun. `Our readers
— mostly Armenians living in Turkey — used to send us letters,
asking if it was possible to translate some news into Turkish. And now
that the Turkish version exists, we’re getting a lot of feedback. It’s
always interesting for people living in Turkey to get opinions from
Armenia,’ said Apresova.
Another news site with Turkish pages in addition to its Armenian,
English and Russian-language pages is News.am. `News.am is a
relatively new online news resource. It started this year. Tert.am
started last year. Both News.am and Tert.am are competing for the same
market,’ said Artur Papyan from the Yerevan Press Club.
The pioneer in Turkish-language Web sites in Armenia is Azg.am, which
is the Web arm of the Azg Daily newspaper.
Hagob Avedikian, editor-in-chief of Azg, said they have been
publishing a Turkish site along with their Armenian, English and
Russian portals since the establishment of their Web page six years
ago.
He said when they started, they received various responses from their
readers, from `sound comments’ to `curses.’
`It was an adventure for us then. Now, Turkish-Armenian relations have
become a major topic, so we should enlarge the Turkish section,’ he
said, adding that they have only about 10 news stories and articles
translated from Armenian to Turkish because they cannot afford to do
more. Avedikian also said they have been encouraged to expand their
Turkish site since they’ve received an advertisement from a Turkish
fragrance company which is seeking partners in Armenia.
Developments regarding Turkey-Armenia relations have helped to
increase Azg.com’s Turkish readership, he said. Their daily number of
hits on the Turkish site was about 180 before the Oct. 14 soccer match
between Turkey and Armenia in the northwestern Turkish town of Bursa.
But a day after the game, they received about 350 hits.
`This is a good development, that people want to know what Armenians
think,’ he added.
After months of furious diplomacy, the two countries took a
significant step on Oct. 10 as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
DavutoÄ?lu and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan signed
protocols in Zurich to improve relations. Both countries should have
the protocols ratified in their parliaments within a `reasonable time
frame.’
Turkey severed diplomatic ties with Armenia and closed its border in
1993 in protest over the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan’s
Nagorno-Karabakh region. There has been optimism following both
countries’ gestures in September of last year, when Turkish President
Abdullah Gül accepted Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan’s invitation
to watch a game between the national soccer teams of both countries.
Sarksyan was in Bursa on Oct. 14 to watch the second-leg match between
Turkey and Armenia. Journalists from both Turkey and Armenia have been
kept busy by the tense nature of relations between the two countries,
and they increasingly feel the need to know what goes on in each
other’s countries as opposition in both sides fights the protocols.
`When there is a development in Turkey related to relations with
Armenia, I would like to know how it was reflected in Armenia,’ said
Demet Bilge Ergün, the news editor from Radikal daily. `I found out
that Tert.am had started publishing news in Turkish, and now I go to
that site every morning after reading the Turkish newspapers.’
Erdinç Ergenç, an editor with Sabah, said as a journalist, he feels
obligated to know what the other side `says and does’ and that a good
way to do it is to go to the Turkish-language sites in Armenia.
`It would be important for journalists at least to know what the other
side is doing in this process,’ he said. However, he added, it is `sad
to see’ that the Turkish side is not involved in a similar effort to
publish news from Turkey in Armenian.
There are, however, growing efforts in that regard. The
Turkish-Armenian community’s weekly Agos has started to post Armenian
news in Turkish as a part of the project `Neighbors about each other,’
made available for public use by the Civilitas Foundation, based in
Armenia, with support from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) through the Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF).
Artak Shakaryan, Armenia-Turkey project manager for the EPF, said
every day over the last few weeks an article from the Turkish media
has been translated into Armenian and posted online at
01 November 2009, Sunday
YONCA POYRAZ DOÄ?AN Ä°STANBUL