TURKISH MEDIA REPORTS ON ARMENIAN MEDIA PUBLISHING IN TURKISH

Tert
Nov 2 2009
Armenia

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, writes Yonca Poyraz Dogan in Turkish news source Today’s Zaman.

On the front page of Tert.am, the words, "Å~^imdi Turkce" 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.

According to the article’s author, the pioneer in Turkish-language
websites 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."

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 Ergun, 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."

Erdinc Ergenc, 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.