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| Europe |
| Turkey passes law for 24-hr Kurdish broadcasts |
| 2008-05-31 |
| ANKARA - Turkey has passed a law easing restrictions on airing programmes in Kurdish and other minority languages after the curbs drew criticism from the European Union. The amendment, passed by parliament late on Thursday, allows state broadcaster TRT to broadcast freely in languages other than Turkish and coincides with an initiative to boost development in the impoverished, mainly Kurdish, southeast. Any restrictions on Kurdish were "cultural vandalism", state-run Anatolian news agency quoted a deputy from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) as saying. "It is the right of Turkey's 20 million Kurdish citizens, who do military service and pay taxes, to expect from TRT broadcasts in their own language," Hasip Kaplan was reported as saying in parliament. State broadcaster TRT began airing weekly half-hour programmes in Kurdish and several other minority languages in 2004 as part of Turkey's bid to join the EU. But the political and military establishment has long feared that encouraging minority languages might harm unity among Turkey's 72 million people. Commentators say the latest move is an attempt to attract viewers in the mainly Kurdish southeast away from Denmark-based Roj TV, a popular channel in the region and which authorities regard as the voice for Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels. Turkey's ruling AK Party won strong support in the southeast in the last parliamentary election, attracting many voters from the DTP after pledges to improve living conditions. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan launched a multi-billion dollar development programme for the southeast on Tuesday to try to ease poverty, which he said fed the conflict. |
| Posted by:Steve White |