Text of report in English by Turkish semi-official news agency Anatolia
["COMMMON TELEVISION OF TURKISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES TO GO ON AIR ON MARCH 21" - AA headline]
Baku, 25 February: Director General of Turkey’s state run TV channel TRT, Ibrahim Sahin, said in Baku Wednesday that “common television of Turkish speaking countries will go on air on March 21″.
Speaking to reporters, Sahin said that the new TV channel will develop and strengthen relations.
“Programmes on the new TV channel will be broadcast in Azeri Turkish as well as in Turkish used in Turkey,” Sahin said.
“The new TV channel will be on air 24 hours a day. Every Turkic country will be allocated four hours in a given day,” Sahin also said.
(Source: Anatolia news agency, Ankara, in English 1222 gmt 25 Feb 09)
on Feb 25th, 2009 at 20:49
TRT’s arithmetics is correct. There are six Turkic countries in the world: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. But what about numerous Uygurs in China or Tatars and Bashkirs in Russia?
I’m sure Azerbaijanis won’t appreciate Sahin’s talk of “Azeri Turkish” language.
on Mar 9th, 2009 at 12:29
You are completely right. Azerbaijani language does belong to the Turkic language group, but still that doesn’t mean that it should be referred to as “Azeri Turkish” language!