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  • ANKARA: Armenian media talks to Turkey in Turkish

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    Nov 1 2009


    Armenian media talks to Turkey in Turkish


    It is not unusual to see English and Russian versions of Armenian news
    sites. But something unusual has started to occur recently, as some
    news sites in Armenia have added a Turkish language section to their
    pages.

    On the front page of Tert.am, the words, `Å?imdi Türkçe' or `Now in
    Turkish' appear brightly colored in fuchsia. Just a click away, it is
    possible to see the headline story on the Turkish page, which was
    launched only a couple of weeks ago: `Prosperous Armenia Party Will
    Vote against Protocol Ratification Only in Case of Preconditions.' Two
    advertisements also appear on Tert.am's Turkish front page.

    Sonya Apresova, an editor from Tert.am, said they have 12 percent
    growth each day in page views of the Turkish section of the site and
    that their visitors are not only from Turkey, but also from Armenia,
    the United States and Europe, especially in Germany, where about 2.5
    million people of Turkish decent live.

    When it comes to their visitors from Turkey, Apresova said that they
    are mostly from Ä°stanbul, but overall visitors from 16 cities have
    checked out their Turkish portal, including Ankara, Adana, Bursa,
    İzmir, Manisa, Antalya, Diyarbakır, Erzurum and Samsun. `Our readers
    -- mostly Armenians living in Turkey -- used to send us letters,
    asking if it was possible to translate some news into Turkish. And now
    that the Turkish version exists, we're getting a lot of feedback. It's
    always interesting for people living in Turkey to get opinions from
    Armenia,' said Apresova.

    Another news site with Turkish pages in addition to its Armenian,
    English and Russian-language pages is News.am. `News.am is a
    relatively new online news resource. It started this year. Tert.am
    started last year. Both News.am and Tert.am are competing for the same
    market,' said Artur Papyan from the Yerevan Press Club.

    The pioneer in Turkish-language Web sites in Armenia is Azg.am, which
    is the Web arm of the Azg Daily newspaper.

    Hagob Avedikian, editor-in-chief of Azg, said they have been
    publishing a Turkish site along with their Armenian, English and
    Russian portals since the establishment of their Web page six years
    ago.

    He said when they started, they received various responses from their
    readers, from `sound comments' to `curses.'

    `It was an adventure for us then. Now, Turkish-Armenian relations have
    become a major topic, so we should enlarge the Turkish section,' he
    said, adding that they have only about 10 news stories and articles
    translated from Armenian to Turkish because they cannot afford to do
    more. Avedikian also said they have been encouraged to expand their
    Turkish site since they've received an advertisement from a Turkish
    fragrance company which is seeking partners in Armenia.

    Developments regarding Turkey-Armenia relations have helped to
    increase Azg.com's Turkish readership, he said. Their daily number of
    hits on the Turkish site was about 180 before the Oct. 14 soccer match
    between Turkey and Armenia in the northwestern Turkish town of Bursa.
    But a day after the game, they received about 350 hits.

    `This is a good development, that people want to know what Armenians
    think,' he added.

    After months of furious diplomacy, the two countries took a
    significant step on Oct. 10 as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
    DavutoÄ?lu and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan signed
    protocols in Zurich to improve relations. Both countries should have
    the protocols ratified in their parliaments within a `reasonable time
    frame.'

    Turkey severed diplomatic ties with Armenia and closed its border in
    1993 in protest over the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan's
    Nagorno-Karabakh region. There has been optimism following both
    countries' gestures in September of last year, when Turkish President
    Abdullah Gül accepted Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan's invitation
    to watch a game between the national soccer teams of both countries.
    Sarksyan was in Bursa on Oct. 14 to watch the second-leg match between
    Turkey and Armenia. Journalists from both Turkey and Armenia have been
    kept busy by the tense nature of relations between the two countries,
    and they increasingly feel the need to know what goes on in each
    other's countries as opposition in both sides fights the protocols.

    `When there is a development in Turkey related to relations with
    Armenia, I would like to know how it was reflected in Armenia,' said
    Demet Bilge Ergün, the news editor from Radikal daily. `I found out
    that Tert.am had started publishing news in Turkish, and now I go to
    that site every morning after reading the Turkish newspapers.'

    Erdinç Ergenç, an editor with Sabah, said as a journalist, he feels
    obligated to know what the other side `says and does' and that a good
    way to do it is to go to the Turkish-language sites in Armenia.

    `It would be important for journalists at least to know what the other
    side is doing in this process,' he said. However, he added, it is `sad
    to see' that the Turkish side is not involved in a similar effort to
    publish news from Turkey in Armenian.

    There are, however, growing efforts in that regard. The
    Turkish-Armenian community's weekly Agos has started to post Armenian
    news in Turkish as a part of the project `Neighbors about each other,'
    made available for public use by the Civilitas Foundation, based in
    Armenia, with support from the United States Agency for International
    Development (USAID) through the Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF).

    Artak Shakaryan, Armenia-Turkey project manager for the EPF, said
    every day over the last few weeks an article from the Turkish media
    has been translated into Armenian and posted online at
    http://www.caucasusneighbors.com/

    01 November 2009, Sunday
    YONCA POYRAZ DOÄ?AN Ä°STANBUL
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