KurdistanObserver.com

Kurdish Broadcasts Start, But More Reforms Needed Thursday, March 23, 2006 ANKARA - TDN with wire services Two private regional television channels and a radio station will start brief Kurdish-language broadcasts for the first time in Turkey today. Executives from Gün TV, Söz TV and Medya FM, all based in the Southeast, signed a deal with Turkey's broadcasting watchdog, the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK), last Friday to begin airing their programs.

"After many bureaucratic setbacks, we have finally won the right to broadcast in Kurdish," said Cemal Doğan, owner of Gün TV. "It is a small step; we still face many restrictions. But it is very important for Turkey and we are happy," he said.

The existing laws limit the broadcasts to 45 minutes a day and four hours per week for television channels and one hour a day and five hours per week for radio stations, he explained.

They also require the broadcasters to run subtitles in Turkish, which some criticize as causing too many technical difficulties.

Under pressure to comply with European Union democracy norms, Turkey began Kurdish-language broadcasts on state television in 2004, a taboo-breaking move in a country where even speaking Kurdish was banned less than 15 years ago.

Shows already prepared:

Gün TV's first Kurdish-language program will be a documentary about the cultural and historic heritage of Diyarbakır, the main city of the Southeast, where the station is based, Doğan said.

Söz TV, also based in Diyarbakır, plans to air a program on Kurdish traditions, while Medya FM, broadcasting from Şanlıurfa, will start with a news bulletin and music, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Medya FM radio representatives, for their part, promised to abide by a rule limiting broadcasts to an hour per day and five hours per week, Doğan said. Radio programs would be followed by a Turkish translation.

Turkey changed its laws in 2002 to allow limited broadcasts in Kurdish and other minority languages, and state television has been airing programs in two Kurdish dialects for a half-hour each week.

Regional stations wanting to broadcast in Kurdish had until now met with bureaucratic hurdles.

‘More reforms needed':

  The start of the limited broadcasts is seen as a first step to more comprehensive reforms on the Kurdish issue.

  "If I were Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, I would allow free, unlimited broadcasting in Kurdish, except for politically sensitive material," said lawyer Sezgin Tanrıkulu, head of the Diyarbakır Bar Association.

  But rising Turkish nationalism along with looming elections scheduled in 2007 makes it harder for Erdogan to act, he said.

  Tanrıkulu said this situation only benefits the PKK, which exploits the people's sense of frustration.

  Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir agrees. "Tensions are rising. The government does not have a sound, well-based plan for resolving the Kurdish problem," he told Reuters.

  Baydemir's Democratic Society Party (DTP) wants a general amnesty for the PKK, more cultural rights and autonomy for the Kurds and a lowering of the 10 percent threshold required to win seats in the Turkish Parliament. This rule effectively bars the DTP, which has strong support in the Southeast but has yet to win more than 10 percent of the vote nationally.

  "If we achieve these things, I do not think the Kurds will want independence from Turkey," Baydemir said.

  He noted that Istanbul and Izmir in western Turkey were now the largest Kurdish cities in the country due to internal migration from the impoverished southeastern region.

  "This is why Turks and Kurds have to learn to live together ... but our task is very difficult," he said.