Turkey Ventures into Satellite Media War

by Rachelle Kliger
Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Turkey plans to launch an Arabic language television station as part of efforts to strengthen relations with the Arab world.

Turkey is looking to buttress its relations with the Arab world by launching an Arabic-language satellite station.

The station will officially be launched by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, underlining what Ankara perceives as a strategic project in the region to improve relations with its neighbors.

“Turkey is located in an Arab neighborhood in the Middle East,” Ramazan Gozen, a professor of international relations at Cankaya University told The Media Line. “So through this channel Turkey wants a connection with the Arabic speaking people.”

The state-owned Turkish broadcasting authority, TRT, is slated to start broadcasting the channel at the beginning of 2010.

Two Arab satellite giants, ArabSat and NileSat, have agreed to beam the channel internationally, specifically targeting Arab countries.

In recent years, Turkey, a predominantly non-Arab country with only half a million Arab speakers, has played a pivotal part in regional developments.

“Turkey’s positioning in the American invasion of Iraq played a very important role,” Gozen said, “because of its refusal to open its territories to American forces in the Iraqi war.”

“Also, in the Arab Israeli conflict, and especially in Israel’s military operation in Gaza, Turkey [displayed] support for the Gaza people and played an important role with the negotiations with Hamas,” he added. “In the last few months Turkey has had close relations with Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and even Egypt. These developments have created an image that Turkey is concerned about Middle Eastern politics and is trying to have friendly relations with regional countries.”

“Giving Turkish information from Turkish sources would be better, safer and more reliable,” Gozen estimated. “Turkey’s diplomatic relations and opening to the Islamic and Middle East world is getting positive reception in the EU as well.”

Analysts estimate that an Arabic speaking satellite channels could improve Ankara’s standing in Brussels, which seeks Turkey’s help in forming a bridge with the Arab world.

Turkey is currently engaged in accession talks to the European Union but negotiations have been hampered because of slow progress on core issues, such as Turkey’s human rights record, its penal code and its dispute with EU member Cyprus.

On January 1, TRT launched a Kurdish-language channel called TRT-6, a move largely seen as a response to EU pressure to grant the Kurdish minority more rights, and an effort to counter the messages disseminated by Kurdish nationalist satellite channels.

Turkish journalist Sifir Touran, who has had ten years experience of working throughout the Arab world, will manage the channel.