Thieves stopped the broadcast of the only local TV channel in Kurdish in Turkey

Thieves stole the technical devices of Amed TV 5 times in the last 3 years and stopped the broadcast. Of the 522 national TV channels in Turkey, only the state-run TRT Kurdi offers news in Kurdish.

Newspaper in Kurdish

According to the 2020 data of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), 4,746 newspapers and magazines are published in Turkey. In a country where 2,164 magazines and 2,582 newspapers are published, there are no news magazines or daily newspapers published in Kurdish. There is only a single weekly newspaper published in Kurdish: Xwebûn.

Television in Kurdish

According to the 2021 data of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), there are 350 satellite television channels and 172 cable television channels in Turkey. Of the 552 television channels in total, only one is offering news in Kurdish, which is the state channel TRT Kurdî. The only private satellite television channel broadcasting in Kurdish is Zarok TV (which offers content for children) and the only television channel making terrestrial broadcasting in Kurdish is Amed TV.

News agency in Kurdish

In Turkey, there is no news agency with Kurdish as its main language. The largest news agency with a Kurdish language option is the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA). The main language of the agencies belonging to Kurdish companies such as the Mezopotamya Agency (MA) and JinNews is also Turkish. Among their language options is Kurdish in addition to English.

Except for the companies owned by Kurds and the state, there is only a single news portal offering a Kurdish language option: bianet.org. There is only a single news portal which also includes Kurdish news while publishing news in Turkish: gazeteduvar.com.

Radio in Kurdish

There is no national radio channel broadcasting in Kurdish in Turkey. TRT Kurdî Radio, which offers the most comprehensive radio broadcasting in that regard, belongs to the state. According to Wikipedia, this radio station “broadcasts in Kurdish in Turkey’s Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia regions and the district of Afrin, which is a part of Syria’s Aleppo province.”