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Learning English - Words in the News 09 June, 2004 - Published 13:56 GMT Turkey starts Kurdish broadcasts | ||||||||||||
The state broadcaster in Turkey, TRT, has begun transmitting short TV and radio programmes in several minority languages, in order to fulfil European Union demands, ahead of possible membership talks. Programmes in Kurdish have been causing the most excitement. This report from Jonny Dymond: Thirty-five minutes of broadcasting twice a week may not seem like much, but this is little short of revolutionary for Turkey. Ethnic homogeneity is one of the founding principles of the republic. For decades the use of Kurdish has been banned, publications proscribed, broadcasters prosecuted. That has all changed. The state broadcaster has yielded to government pressure and has implemented the law passed almost two years ago, allowing broadcasts in languages other than Turkish. Given the ready availability of Kurdish language broadcasting on satellite television, it's unlikely that TRT's limited offering will attract a large following, but the symbolism is immense. The Turkish Republic, which has for so long resisted recognising the Kurds as a separate minority, has done just that. Jonny Dymond, BBC, Turkey little short of homogeneity founding principles proscribed yielded implemented other than ready availability offering following |
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