Laz the latest to ask for TV
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Milliyet
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 14, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - The launch of a channel broadcasting in Kurdish by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT, has led other ethnic groups to seek the same privilege, the latest being the Laz community, who speak a language akin to Georgian and live mainly in the eastern Black Sea region.
The community has launched a Web site to garner support for a TRT channel broadcasting in the Laz language. Members of the community said the right to broadcast in a native tongue was a constitutional one.
Other ethnic communities, such as the Circassians, also want native language broadcasts. The campaign by the Laz on the Web site www.lazcayayinistiyorum.azlaguyi.com seeks to get people to pressure the TRT through the Internet, fax, telephone and mail to obtain a channel in their own language, which the site says has been in use in Anatolia for thousands of years.
"If there is a right on the table that can be used equally by all citizens, those whose mother tongue is Laz should also benefit from it," the Web site said. The campaign encourages people to join the initiative. "Everyone staking a claim in the use of their mother tongue should be asking to practice this lawful right through the TRT, which is an organ of the state."
Criticizing the TRT
The Web site states that the Laz do not only live in Pazar, Ardeşen, Arhavi and Hopa in the Black Sea region, but in the Marmara region and metropolises too. The site also said the Laz language was not included in the languages that TRT broadcasts each week and said TRT’s justification that the Laz language belonged to the same linguistic family as Greek, was baseless.
Other ethnic communities, such as the Circassians, also want native language broadcasts. The campaign by the Laz on the Web site www.lazcayayinistiyorum.azlaguyi.com seeks to get people to pressure the TRT through the Internet, fax, telephone and mail to obtain a channel in their own language, which the site says has been in use in Anatolia for thousands of years.
"If there is a right on the table that can be used equally by all citizens, those whose mother tongue is Laz should also benefit from it," the Web site said. The campaign encourages people to join the initiative. "Everyone staking a claim in the use of their mother tongue should be asking to practice this lawful right through the TRT, which is an organ of the state."
Criticizing the TRT
The Web site states that the Laz do not only live in Pazar, Ardeşen, Arhavi and Hopa in the Black Sea region, but in the Marmara region and metropolises too. The site also said the Laz language was not included in the languages that TRT broadcasts each week and said TRT’s justification that the Laz language belonged to the same linguistic family as Greek, was baseless.