People fishing in the Mediterranean Sea, in Mersin, TurkeyBranching out from West Africa, I have an article in this week’s Tennessee Tribune about what Kurds think of a new Turkish government-run Kurdish-language TV station. (It starts on page 1, and continues on page 14.) The article is based on reporting I did earlier this month in Mersin, a mostly Kurdish city in the south of Turkey.
The station, TRT6, defies easy categorization. On one level it’s an attempt to send more effectively pro-government messages to Kurds. And as the ruling party has lost support among Kurds since it started bombing the rebel PKK group in northern Iraq, the station is an attempt to garner support among Kurds ahead of local elections in March.
But TRT6 is also a real progressive move. The station comes from a government that has denied the Kurds exist, and still prohibits use of the Kurdish language in official correspondence. One Kurd I spoke to sees the station as a success in the struggle for Kurdish rights.
As always, I welcome any thoughts on this article.
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