Leaders of the Caucasian Associations Federation (KAFFED), the umbrella organization for 56 Caucasian associations active in Turkey, have conveyed their demands for state TV broadcasts in their mother tongues of Adygey and Abkhaz to President Abdullah.
“TRT6, alongside Kurdish, should air TV and radio broadcast also in other spoken mother tongues, to provide Turkey’s 6 million citizens of Caucasian background the opportunity to enjoy their mother languages,” Cumhur Bal the general coordinator for KAFFED, told Bianet.
Public channel TRT 6 last week started 12 hours of daily TV broadcasts in the Kurdish (Kirmanji) language. The remaining 12 hours should be fairly shared by other language groups, Circassians urge.
In 2004, Turkey’s state-owned broadcasting company TRT started limited TV broadcasts on TRT3 in the Kurdish (Kirmanji), Circassian, Bosnian and Arabic languages. Circassians are dissatisfied with the present situation says Bal, criticizing the present Circassian broadcast for its limited duration –30 minutes a week- and time-worn coverage of events from the previousweek. “The Circassians are not interested in these broadcasts as they are not based on their culture and tastes” he told Bianet.
“We are not raising the demands for TV broadcast in Circassian in retaliation to Kurdish or other languages,” the KAFFED official says. “We had requested the meeting with the president as early as October, much earlier than the launching of Kurdish TV broadcast. However, all spoken languages should enjoy similar opportunities.”
(Source: Bianet)
