ANKARA-BASED KURDISH RADIO STATION FACES RISING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000995 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL OSCE TU SUBJECT: ANKARA-BASED KURDISH RADIO STATION FACES RISING PRESSURE, BLOCKED SIGNAL REF: A. ANKARA 470 ¶B. 06 ANKARA 5698 ¶C. 06 ANKARA 6706 Classified By: Political Counselor Janice G. Weiner for reasons 1.4(b), (d) 1.(C) Summary: "Radio Imaj", an Ankara station that plays Kurdish music and conducts occasional Kurdish-language interviews, has recently faced increasing pressure in the form of administrative closure cases and efforts to "jam" its frequency, according to its President Adnan Yuce. Official contacts deny any jamming and point to the ease with which one radio station can broadcast over another's frequency. This is not the first claim of this sort. The GOT is considered by credible sources to jam Kurdish-language satellite broadcasts from Europe and Northern Iraq. Although a more constructive, if controversial, policy would be to expand Kurdish freedom of expression, no politician is likely to push the issue in the midst of a heated dual-election year. End summary. -------------- -------------- "Radio Imaj" Ankara's First Station to Broadcast in Kurdish -------------- -------------- 2.(SBU) On Tuesday April 10, we met with President and General Manager of Radyo Imaj, a station that the GOT has closed down on several occasions after it broadcasted music and discussions in Kurdish. Imaj, the first Ankara station to broadcast in Kurdish, was founded over a decade ago and is part of the "Manset Haber" group -- a collection of Kurdish-language Internet broadcast sites. Through terrestrial-based and Internet-based signals, it broadcasts music in Turkish, Kurdish, Greek, Armenian, Laz, and other languages, and occasionally features interviews with musicians. In the past, Imaj has also covered economic, political, and cultural events. Due to the station's Kurdish-language content, according to Yuce, the GOT has initiated several administrative "closure" cases against the station since it began -- two of which are ongoing in Ankara administrative courts. Imaj has filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights in protest. -------------- Blocked Signal Station's Latest Obstacle -------------- 3.(C) Yuce said increasing pressure began when the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) used a legal technicality to close the station on October 12, 2006. The station went on-air again in December 2006, when RTUK lifted the restriction, but has found its signal "jammed" since February. According to Yuce, when Imaj's technical experts discovered Turkish State Television (TRT) transmitters were "polluting" the signal, an unknown private entity took over the blocking effort. He ascribed recent problems to a fear by the secular state establishment, including the judiciary, of losing power to control Kurdish issues, as the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) gains strength from EU-driven institutional reforms. When Imaj filed a complaint in court, according to Yuce, the judge initially accepted it but later, under pressure from RTUK and state actors who spread the "myth" that the station puts out separatist messages, dismissed the case. 4.(SBU) Yuce noted that important gains had been made since AKP came to power in 2004, including the ability to broadcast in Kurdish (formerly impossible) and fewer roadbdblocks to filing lawsuits against RTUK. In Yuce's view, further gains will depend on whether AKP can continue to liberalize in the face of a backlash from the traditional state power structure. -------------- -------------- GOT Denies Responsibility, Knowledge of Signal Interference -------------- -------------- 5.(C) Several GOT contacts denied government involvement in signal-blocking, or distanced themselves from the issue. TRT Monitoring Board Head Latif Okul, who has 40 years experience ANKARA 00000995 002 OF 002 at RTUK and TRT, told us the GOT blocks neither television nor radio signals. While blocking satellite TV signals is technologically complex, he explained, blocked radio signals are not uncommon given the ease with which one station can illegally broadcast over another's frequency. Such private interference, not government actions, caused problems such as that experienced by Radio Imaj, according to Okul. 6.(C) Asked whether he has knowledge of any efforts to jam radio or television signals, AKP Vice Chairman and MP Dengir Mir Firat said he had no way of knowing whether Kurdish broadcasts are being jammed. Firat believed broadcasts should not be blocked anywhere in the world, and implied that the U.S., not Turkey, has technological means both to block signals and locate the source of blocking efforts. 7.(C) Comment: Yuce's allegation that the state is behind the frequency jamming of a mainly-music station based in Ankara is not implausible though we have no proof. Many in the state apparatus continue to view all things Kurdish as linked to the terrorist PKK (we have no reason to believe that Radio Imaj falls into the pro-PKK category). The GOT has long lobbied the Danish government to close Roj-TV, which is PKK-affiliated, prosecuted 56 mayors who wrote a letter to the Danish Prime Minister in support of Roj-TV, and is considered by credible sources to jam Roj-TV signals as well as those emanating from northern Iraq-based stations. A more constructive policy would be to show a good-faith effort to expand freedom of expression. In the midst of a heated, nationalistic dual-election year, however, even liberal-minded MP's would be wary of spearheading such an effort. End comment. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON