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State-run TRT launches Arabic language channel
“If you are not here, the world loses its meaning. We now know that our roots are intertwined,” Erdoğan said on Sunday in Arabic and Turkish at Dolmabahçe Palace at the opening ceremony of “TRT al Turkiye.”
“We have a mutual history and culture, and more importantly, we are members of a mutual civilization. We share a past on these lands. You should also know that our future is one, too,” Erdoğan said.
The new channel will broadcast in Arabic around the clock and is expected to reach 350 million people throughout the Arab world. Most of the programs will be presented by native Arabic speakers. According to the channel’s editorial policy, they will address the ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity of the region.
After signing several cooperation agreements with Jordan, Syria and other Arabic-speaking countries, TRT will also exchange programs and undertake joint productions.
Erdoğan also said there might have been borders set between the Arab nations and Turkey, and there might be mines between the countries, but they all have the will to overcome these barriers.
 Prime Minister Erdoğan delivered a speech at Dolmabahçe Palace at the launch ceremony of TRT al Turkiye on Sunday. |
“Nobody has had the power to separate bothers,” he added. “Even though we have turned our face to the West, we never turned our backs to the East.”
The prime minister also talked about the disasters in Haiti, Chile and Palestine.
“As Gaza burns and dark clouds form over Jerusalem, we can’t stay mute,” he said.
He also noted that speaking different languages is not a barrier in communicating with each other.
Also present at the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said that Turkish and Arabic people are like “fingers on one hand.”
Pointing out that he has visited a lot of Middle Eastern countries in the last few months, Arınç said people from the Arab world were eagerly awaiting the Arabic TRT channel, which will broadcast via three satellites. Three satellite companies -- Turksat, Aransat and Nilesat -- will provide transmissions for TRT al Turkiye. The İstanbul-based channel will also broadcast live from Cairo, Beirut, Damascus and Ankara.
Joining the opening ceremony through a video message, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said they will watch the channel with great interest.
TRT Director-General İbrahim Şahin said the new TRT channel would enable Turkey and Arab countries to know each other better.
“TRT Arabic will broadcast a range of programs from politics to sports, from movies to TV series,” Şahin said.
The secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, and Prince of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thami were also at the opening ceremony, in which a 13-year-old Syrian girl read a poem in Arabic titled “Love from Turkey.”
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