Didim Today

Parliament on Friday discussed the government’s democratic initiative aimed at ultimately ending Turkey’s long-standing problem with separatist violence by revising its policy toward minorities. In the latest session of Parliament, the government and the opposition entered with drastically different expectations, but the government is taking action to implement its policy and hopes to collect the immediate fruits of this initiative.

In line with the initiative, the government has launched an amendment, which is, in my humble opinion, very important. The new legislation came into force just recently, on Nov. 13. The reason I am interested in this particular legislation is that it directly affects the social and cultural life of local Turkish people. The legislation is not a law but a communiqué. The government already notified the public and the opposition that most of the regulations that need to be implemented are already in force but some minor administrative changes have to be made.

The government also added that these regulations will be implemented without the interference of Parliament. The following regulation is made in this sense, and it is a communiqué. The communiqué concerns television and radio broadcasting regulations, and the official name of the legislation is “Radio and Television Broadcasts Made in Various Languages and Dialects Traditionally Used by Turkish Citizens in Their Daily Lives.” Indeed, in this age of communication, technological advances and innovations have made it possible to overcome many prohibitions regarding broadcasting.

You can see big antennas on the roofs of houses in the eastern part of Turkey. These antennas allow viewers to watch or listen to programs from different countries. The preamble of the communiqué states the scope, purpose and definitions. The purpose of the legislation is to regulate broadcasting companies other than the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) that broadcast in different languages and dialects that are used traditionally in the daily life of Turkish citizens.

The plural form used in the definition of the scope of the communiqué indicates that the regulation is not addressing only a single language, Kurdish.

Indeed, the initiative is not addressing only Kurds; it is one of the steps to fix the long-standing problems faced by all minorities who are Turkish citizens. In other words, the legislation should also include broadcasting in all languages and dialects other than Turkish, including, but not limited to, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, the Karapapak dialect, Turkmen, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Chechen, Armenian, Greek, etc.

All minorities who are Turkish citizens and who traditionally speak their own language will be able to broadcast programs in their own language or dialect. Therefore, this communiqué encompasses a huge population and geographical area.

The question in my mind is: Will Turkish citizens with foreign roots be able to have their languages broadcast on television and radio in Turkey? In the next article, I will mention the other details of this new regulation.

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