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Turkish Media Reports On Armenian Media Publishing In Turkish

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  • Turkish Media Reports On Armenian Media Publishing In Turkish

    TURKISH MEDIA REPORTS ON ARMENIAN MEDIA PUBLISHING IN TURKISH

    Tert
    Nov 2 2009
    Armenia

    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, writes Yonca Poyraz Dogan in Turkish news source Today's Zaman.

    On the front page of Tert.am, the words, "Å~^imdi Turkce" 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.

    According to the article's author, the pioneer in Turkish-language
    websites 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."

    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 Ergun, 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."

    Erdinc Ergenc, 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.
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