TURKEY: STATE TV LAUNCHES KURDISH CHANNEL

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SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/06/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL TU OSCE EU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: STATE TV LAUNCHES KURDISH CHANNEL


1. (C) Summary: This is a joint cable Embassy Ankara,
Consulate Istanbul, and Consulate Adana. On January 1 the
government-run broadcasting service Turkish Radio and
Television (TRT) began official 24-hour Kurdish broadcasting
on the new TRT 6. While some representatives from Kurdish and
human rights organizations criticized the GOT decision as
delayed and politically motivated, others viewed it as a late
but positive step. Despite this move, severe restrictions
remain on the use of Kurdish in public institutions. Until
significant positive steps are made to address these
limitations, TRT 6 will be criticized by many as an empty
gesture. Nevertheless, TRT 6 represents a sea change in the
GOT's treatment of the use of Kurdish in the public realm and
is a step that many would not have believed possible a few
years ago. End summary.



2. (C) On January 1 at 1700 Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, launched a new state-run television station
featuring programming entirely in Kurdish, by saying "May TRT
6 be beneficial" in Kurdish. The GOT officially commenced TRT
6 (known colloquially as TRT Shesh, using the Kurdish word
for six) after a week of test broadcasts of 24-hour Kurdish,
Arabic, and FARSI programming. The station is not merely
flirting with taboos, as did a previous law that allowed
private stations to broadcast in Kurdish for only four hours
a week, and even then with Turkish subtitles, preventing live
broadcasts. TRT 6 appears to be off to a solid start with
news programs, cultural shows, and documentaries, even
inviting a Kurdish singer named Rojin to host a women's talk
show, despite her songs having served as grounds to close
television and radio stations which aired them in the past.
Mehmet Celal Baykara of the Kurdish Cultural Research
Foundation said he and other Kurds are happy with the
station, noting that it "was a delayed but positive
decision." He noted that while the different Kurdish
dialects used in programming occasionally created confusion,
the station itself was technically accessible and the content
"will get better in time."

Election Ploy or Good-Faith Gesture?
--------------


3. (C) Reaction to the new station has been mixed. A range
of our contacts and press reports see TRT 6 as an important
step toward forging a more inclusive definition of democracy.
Adnan Elci, the President of the Chamber of Commerce in
Cizre, Sirnak Province, told us that the overwhelming
majority of people in the Southeast are pleased with having a
channel broadcasting in their mother tongue. Elci was
impressed that a TRT 6 crew came to Cizre to conduct an
interview with him, in Kurdish, which was accompanied by a
tour of historical sites, the organized industrial zone, and
Habur border gate. Attorney Sezgin Tanrikulu, president of
the Human Rights Foundation in Diyarbakir, believes that TRT
6 represents a positive, vital, and meaningful development
for Turkey, but pointed out to us that he is still scheduled
to stand trial on February 5 for printing a calendar/notebook
in Kurdish. Another contact pointed out that there is no
legal or constitutional basis for broadcasting in Kurdish
right now; in essence the GOT may have put the cart before
the horse.


4. (C) Some members of the Kurdish-based Democratic Society
Party (DTP) have praised the station, though were careful to
claim it as fruit of the struggle of the Kurdish people, not
a victory for the Turkish government. The DTP Provincial
Chairman for Ardahan, Omer Yilmaz, also noted that TRT 6 is
only one step toward a peaceful solution to Kurds'
discontent. Emrullah Cin, the DTP mayor of Viransehir in
Sanliurfa Province was much more skeptical, viewing the
channel as a propaganda vehicle of the Turkish state and a
thinly disguised election ploy. He pointed to the empty AKP
track record on Kurdish issues before the election season and
raised the issue of pending court cases against those who
have used "nonexistent" Kurdish letters and his own futile
attempts to name three municipal parks after local Kurdish
citizens. On the other hand, the leader of the parliamentary
opposition, Republican People's Party Chairman Deniz Baykal,
told the press that the AKP had gone too far. In his
opinion, Kurdish broadcasting should be a private endeavor,
not a state-sponsored one. He expressed concern that every
ethnic group in Turkey would subsequently request its own
television station and claimed that, instead of reconciling
Kurds and the Turkish state, TRT 6 will encourage ethnic

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identities and further divide the population, saying AKP
leaders "either know they are doing a very dangerous thing or
don't know what they are doing."

As a Tool in Counterterrorism and State-Building
-------------- ---


5. (C) TRT 6, if successfully utilized, may also serve well
to counteract PKK propaganda in the Southeast. Tanrikulu
noted that PKK elements, predictably, do not view TRT 6
positively. Ostensibly, this is because it rivals their
previous broadcast monopoly. (Comment: Evidence suggests
that Roj TV is a front organization for the PKK. End Comment)
It also offers would-be recruits an ideological alternative,
and detracts from the legitimacy of PKK battle cries for
language recognition. He also observed the importance of
recognizing the lack of outrage from Turkish citizens in
nationalistic pockets dotting western Turkey in response to
the new channel. Serdar Sengul, foreign relations advisor to
Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir, said that in the past the
Turkish state referred to people in the East and Southeast as
"underdeveloped Turks;" with new programs on TRT 6, these
regions are now being perceived as Kurdish regions. The
Turkish state should be careful to keep the advantage of
providing Kurds with an alternative message to the PKK's,
sensitive to the concerns of its primary audience.


6. (C) Sengul also said that the existence of a
state-sponsored Kurdish channel was nothing short of
revolutionary, since Kurds have been struggling to have their
language recognized in Turkey for more than 80 years. He can
see the change immediately, he said, noting that the gas
station he usually frequents now has employees huddled around
TRT 6 instead of the usual diet of music videos from Kral TV.
Diyarbakir's Chamber of Commerce and Industry President
Mehmet Kaya also acknowledges the transformation this
represents, but reminded us that "the government waited for
three years to open the Kurdish channel. If they wait two
years more for broader language rights and two more years for
other basic rights, it is not going to help solve the issue."
The novelty of TRT 6 is bringing in a high number of viewers
now, in his mind, but if the content is too propagandistic or
not relevant, the station may prove to be a false start.

Continued Challenges With Freedom of Expression
-------------- --


7. (C) Television broadcasting notwithstanding, other
restrictions remain on the use of Kurdish in the public
sphere, including bans on the use of the letters W, Q, and X
-- present in Kurdish but not in Turkish -- in publications,
signage, and official documents. While there is no
Constitutional provision banning the use of Kurdish, Article
58 of Law 298 of the Basic Principles of Elections and
Article 8/13 of Law 2820 on Political Parties prohibit the
use of language other than Turkish in election propaganda and
by political parties. However, Kurdish is effectively banned
in political speech, in the courts, in universities, and
other public institutions, and until TRT 6, in the broadcast
media. Due to the ban on specific letters, the English
language daily newspaper "Hurriyet Daily News" had to
register as "Hurriyet Daily Nevs" (note "v" in "news" vice
"w") and court prosecutors occasionally open court cases
against companies, NGOs, and political organizations
seemingly at random for using one of the restricted letters
in their name or literature. DTP deputy Akin Birdal said
such discrepancies present a dilemma for the Turkish state,
but he is optimistic about the future and does not doubt that
the GOT will take more steps. As a potential solution to the
concern that education in the Kurdish language is
nonexistent, Yusuf Ozcan, the head of the Higher Education
Board (YOK) president, disclosed to the press that his
organization is preparing to open Kurdish language
departments in universities in Ankara and Istanbul and would
begin approving Kurdish classes as elective courses at the
university level.


8. (C) The ban on the use of Kurdish in parliament and in
public speeches resulted in the arrest and convictions of
hundreds of ethnic Kurdish politicians and public figures in

2008. The head of the Turkey Human Rights Association, Yavuz
Onen, said a state-run channel in Kurdish is not the cure for
problems and is politically motivated. "Local authorities
must be allowed to deliver services in other languages. The
state allows Kurdish TV on the one hand, but opens

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investigations against mayors who send bayram (holiday)
greeting cards in Kurdish." In February 2008 the DTP
sub-provincial chairman in Istanbul's Fatih district, Mehdi
Tanrikulu, was convicted for speaking Kurdish during judicial
proceedings in 2007 and sentenced to a five month
imprisonment. Kurdish remains prohibited in other public
institutions. In early 2008, the Ministry of Justice
reportedly distributed a memorandum asserting that speaking
in any language other than Turkish was forbidden in prisons
by Article 88 of the 2996 Prison Regulations law. While
Turkish dailies reported on January 5 that the Minister of
Justice Sahin gave instructions to lift the ban on the use of
Kurdish in prisons, such prohibitions continue to prevent
inmates from writing letters or speaking to relatives not
literate in or able to speak Turkish.

Comment
--------------


9. (C) TRT 6 is a significant benchmark for both the
governing Justice and Development Party (AKP)'s commitment to
reform and for the objectivity of the judicial system.
Erdogan and the AKP have come under criticism for using the
Kurdish language as a political tool to boost their sagging
popularity, particularly in the Southeast where DTP poses a
sharp challenge. AKP can prove its commitment to truly
mainstreaming Kurdishness by following through on promises to
allow Kurdish in universities, prisons, and other government
buildings. Doing so would burnish Turkey's image with the EU
and a host of human rights organizations which have been
commenting that 2009 will be a critical year for Turkey. But
whether AKP passes or fails this test is, in some ways,
immaterial; TRT 6 would be a difficult step to reverse
without disappointing a large sector of the voting public,
something very few political parties would undertake lightly.
Even without government support, TRT 6 will make even more
obvious the inconsistencies in state language policy. In and
of itself, it will not deter continued efforts by nationalist
prosecutors attempting to target organizations and
individuals based on Kurdish language use through selective
prosecutions. TRT 6 will, however, be an obvious argument in
bolstering their defense, and therefore will serve as a
touchstone for measuring the impartiality and objectivity of
the Turkish judicial system.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
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Jeffrey