Turkish Sabah newspaper reports that 'Armenian TV' is to start broadcasting at the end of 2009:
"TRT is now in preparation for the new Armenian TV station, which will begin broadcasts at the end of 2009. An affirmative outlook has been given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the upcoming Armenian TV channel. The start of radio broadcasts in Armenian and an official website in February will prove as a test for the new television station. The television broadcasts will include famous Armenian musicians, such as Ara Gevorgian, Tata, Nune Yesayan, Andre and Sirusho as well as Kardeş Türküler and other Turkish groups that sing Armenian songs. Categorized as a family channel, Armenian TV will provide top headlines of developments in Turkey and Armenia on their newsreel. The new satellite channel, which will employ Armenian staff members, will also focus on those living in Armenia as well as on Armenians living in Turkey."
Not sure about Nune Yesayan but sounds like yet another positive news in recent development of Armenia - Turkey relations. I wonder what type of information policy this newly formed TV channel will be 'allowed' to embrace? Will it become Agos-like TV channel? Or will it become a mere state propaganda tool?
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And here is another example of Turkey's "Television diplomacy".
*via The Economist
ROJIN is a feisty, beautiful Kurdish bard who belts out nationalist ballads. As a result, private Kurdish television channels that showed her were long penalised or even taken off the air. But now she will be a regular on Turkey’s stultified TRT state television, which this week launched a 24-hour Kurdish channel in the main Kurdish dialect, Kurmanji. [...]
In another move, some 200 Turkish intellectuals have launched an internet petition about the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, saying that they are sorry. The text of their apology does not use the term genocide, favoured by Armenians. But at least 25,000 Turks, from many different walks of life, have signed the petition, prompting calls of treason by far-right nationalists. Mr Erdogan himself has called the petition “a mistake”. The country’s president, Abdullah Gul, who has spearheaded secret talks to normalise relations with Armenia, has been accused by an opposition parliamentarian of having Armenian ancestry. He took her to court, claiming his lineage was Turkish and Muslim to boot.
The petition’s signatories have also been assailed by many Armenians, who dismiss it as a ploy to get Barack Obama, who has used the G-word in the past, to drop it. Yet some are less recalcitrant. Khatchig Mouradian, a writer in the Armenian diaspora, says that “without such initiatives, traditional diplomacy resolves too little, late, and risks looking like mere make-up on a deeply scarred face.”
Great news, and something I tell many people here. You cannot compare the Turkey of today with that of ten years ago.
In 1997, when I worked for Med-TV, broadcasting in Kurdish was illegal and people who watched Med-TV were persecuted and worse.
Now, not only can Kurdish musicians work, and Kurds watch broadcasts in Kurdish, but soon so will Armenians.
Incidentally, combining the two, when at Med-TV I was introduced to one of the most popular of singers in Kurdish -- Aram Tigran.
That's right, an Armenian (from Syria) who was recently able to visit Diyarbakir.
BTW: In 1997, Med=TV wanted to offer Armenians in the Diaspora the opportunity to have their own slot on their station.
Strangely, they refused, but anyway. Times are changing, and I hope among everyone.
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