Novinite.com, Bulgaria
March 21 2009
Turkey Starts Armenian, Kurdish Language Radio Channels
World | March 21, 2009, Saturday
Turkey’s state radio and TV corporation TRT is going to start an
Armenian-language channel.
The news has been reported by the Hurriyet Daily News, which also
reminds that on Wednesday Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, said TRT would launch a radio station broadcasting in
Turkish.
The radio channels in Armenian and Kurdish are expected to start in
two or three months.
The move signifies the recent thaw in Armenia-Turkey relations. Even
though Armenia wants Turkey to recognize the 1915-1922 Armenian
genocide, whose existence Turkey adamantly denies, Armenia also would
like to see a normalization of the relations with its Turkish
neighbor, BGNES points out citing a recent statement of Armenian Prime
Minister, Tigran Sarkisian.
Some 50 000 ethnic Armenians currently live in Turkey, and most of
them are in the country’s largest city of Istanbul.
Turkey has recently stepped up with a program to boost the cultural
rights of the Kurdish minority including by launching a 24-hour TV
channel in Kurdish, TRT-6.