Kurdish broadcast ban under pressure

Bad reception: refugees tune in to banned broadcasts

Turkey's ban on Kurdish-language broadcasts may soon be lifted following pressure from the European Union on Ankara for cultural reforms to meet EU membership criteria.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said this month that Turkey would "sooner or later" have to consider allowing Kurdish broadcasts.

Human Rights Minister Rustu Kazim Yucelen said Turkey could relaunch Kurdish-language broadcasts within a month if the three-party government coalition agreed.

But that agreement may be hard to achieve.

Only one year ago Turkey's then president, Suleyman Demirel, warned that allowing Kurdish-language broadcasts would divide the country.

Broadcast and educate

The European Union has urged Turkey to lift constitutional curbs on free speech and grant all citizens the right to educate and broadcast in their mother tongue.

Premier: 'sooner or later'

Although the EU avoided any specific reference to Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds or smaller minorities, the Accession Partnership Document makes it clear the long-standing broadcasting ban must be lifted.

Mr Ecevit said last week in the newspaper Hurriyet that his three-way coalition government would have to take "many realities" into account, including the satellite TV broadcasts beamed to Turkey by Kurdish factions in northern Iraq and by the Paris-based Medya TV, which supports the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Proposing TV broadcasts in Kurdish in Turkey is nothing less than treason

Minister of State Abdulhalik Cay

The PKK has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in south-eastern Turkey since 1984, and cultural autonomy for the Kurds is one of its primary demands.

Following the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan in February 1999, the PKK said it would stop the armed campaign against Ankara and withdraw outside Turkey in a bid for a peaceful settlement to the conflict.

Battle ahead

Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, who heads the Motherland Party, also backs Kurdish-language broadcasts.

This month he suggested that since Kurds in Turkey were already watching Kurdish-language satellite TV channels from abroad, Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) should itself broadcast in Kurdish.

But the coalition's far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) has voiced harsh objections.

EU seeks media for all Turkey's minorities

Defence Minister Sebahattin Cakmakoglu of the MHP said he was opposed to broadcasts in Kurdish, although it was difficult "technically" to stop people listening to such broadcasts via satellite.

The MHP's Minister of State Abdulhalik Cay went further: "Proposing TV broadcasts in Kurdish in Turkey is nothing less than treason."

Signs of thaw

They fear that recognition of Kurdish cultural rights could fuel separatism and damage Turkey's unity. But a thaw in attitudes is now evident.

According to the Istanbul newspaper Sabah, Turkey's Council of State told the Higher Council for Radio and Television (RTUK): "If there is no separatism in the content, do not penalise anyone."

The Council of State also ruled that broadcasting interviews and excerpts from statements in Kurdish was not against the law.

But under current regulations, RTUK chairman Nuri Kayis points out, if TRT broadcasts any Kurdish programmes, it would first be warned and its top officials fired in the event of further violations.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.