TRT Kurdî is the first national television station that broadcasts in the
Kurdish dialect of
Kurmanji and in
Zazaki. On the channels sixth anniversary it changed its name from TRT 6 into TRT Kurdi.
A 2018 survey of 393 Kurdish individuals from both southeastern and western regions of Turkey found that 59% did not trust the news reporting of TRT Kurdî. The study indicated that individuals who primarily identified as Kurdish were more likely to view the channel critically, particularly in regard to its news content, while those who identified primarily as Sunni Muslims tended to have a more favorable view of the channel.
Opening and objective
The ban on the Kurdish language in Turkey was lifted in 2001 and legal barriers to broadcast in the language were removed the following year. In 2004, new regulations were passed, following which
TRT was allowed to broadcast 30 minutes in Kurdish.
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation
The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish: ) is the national public broadcasting, public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio broadcaster in Turkey. Before the introductio ...
subsequently broadcast programs in Kurdish with limited duration. These limitations were later removed and TRT 6 was launched in 2009, which researcher Mesut Yeğen argues was the result of an understanding that Turkey had failed at assimilating its Kurdish minority. Both the
Nationalist Movement Party
The Nationalist Movement Party, or alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party (, MHP), is a Turkish Far-right politics, far-right, ultranationalism, ultranationalist Political parties in Turkey, political party. The group is often de ...
and
Republican People's Party
The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...
were against this initiative and
anti-Kurdish sentiment
Anti-Kurdish sentiment, also known as anti-Kurdism or Kurdophobia, is hostility, fear, intolerance or racism against the Kurds, Kurdish people, Kurdistan, Kurdish culture, or Kurdish languages. A person who holds such positions is sometimes ref ...
rose among
Turkish nationalists.
In addition, an unofficial aim of the channel was to reduce the influence of
Roj TV, which was regarded as
PKK's main broadcast channel. Unlike Roj TV and other diasporic Kurdish channels, the objective of TRT Kurdî was not to serve Kurdish political nor cultural empowerment, as researcher Esra Arsan furthermore writes:
Reception
Most
Kurds
Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...
reject TRT Kurdî and accuse it of being a propaganda tool to
Turkify the Kurdish population.
The members of parliament of the pro-Kurdish
Democratic Society Party (DTP) did not attend to the opening of TRT 6 at the time.
The
imprisoned leader of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...
(PKK)
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan ( ; ; born 4 April 1948 or 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish; Kurdish for "uncle"), is a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Öcalan was based in Syria from 1979 to 1998. He ...
also didn't support its establishment with
Murat Karayilan calling for a boycott of the channel
and its
imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan viewed it as the American imposition for a solution for the
Kurdish-Turkish conflict.
OdaTV has also described TRT Kurdî as the most important propaganda tool by the
AKP on the Kurds,
and Head of the Kurdish Writers' Association Irfan Babaoğlu argued that the station was an attempt to distract Kurds from the lack of overall cultural rights.
It has been criticized as portraying the current pro-Kurdish
Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) officials in a violent manner in a TV show called ''Pivaz''.
In the show, actors play HDP officials of having ties to the
Kurdistan Workers Party (which is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey) or even threatening people who visit the party headquarters of being shot.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:TRT Kurdi
Television stations in Turkey
Kurdish-language television stations
Television channels and stations established in 2009
2009 establishments in Turkey
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation