(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Turkey yesterday unexpectedly renamed its six-year-old state television channel broadcasting in the Kurdish language as "TRT Kurdish", in an unprecedented move that would once have been unthinkable.
The channel was until now known just as TRT 6, as the sixth channel of state broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT).
It was launched in 2009 in a major development after years when Kurdish language had been strictly banned in Turkish broadcasting and education and the use of Kurdish in a federal channel would have seemed impossible.
The launch and now renaming of the channel are part of reforms by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to end a three decade separatist insurgency in Turkey's southeast.
TRT's general manager Senol Goka announced at a ceremony on Saturday that the channel was to be imminently remained TRT Kurdi (TRT Kurdish), saying that "maybe this will be a surprise". By yesterday, the channel, its radio station, website had all been renamed. "To much has been destroyed by not acknowledging our differences," Turkish media quoted him as saying. "It is good to accept them to the smallest detail and reach the widest audience in this way."
The government is seeking to end the 30 year separatist insurgency waged by the Kurdistan Workers Party which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. It also has a keen eye on the votes of Turkey's Kurdish community, its biggest minority accounting for an estimated 20 percent of the population, ahead of legislative elections in June.
The channel, which broadcasts on both the main Kurmanji and Sorani dialects of Kurdish, aims to counter the sometimes pro-PKK stance of Kurdish channels broadcasting from outside of Turkey.
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