Re: Kurdish music on newly established US radio

Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 02:27:14 +0100
Newsgroups: soc.culture.kurdish,soc.culture.iraq,soc.culture.syria,soc.culture.turkish,soc.culture.iranian
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The Government in South Kurdistan/North Iraq should build a megawatt
mediumwave transmitter and beam Kurdish cultural programmes and uncensored
news throughout Kurdistan (including the parts controlled by Turkey, Iran,
Syria etc) so that Kurds in these countries have a chance to hear uncensored
programmes in their own language. Also they should devote a couple hours per
day to broadcasting in other languages (Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Armenian,
English etc) to reach Kurds who have been forced to give up their language
as well as moderate non-Kurds who could be educated about the Kurdish point
of view.
Most older people in Europe remember Radio Luxembourg (with commercial
music) and Radio Moscow (with news and propaganda) used to be heard across
Europe. Surely its about time the part of Kurdistan that has some degree of
freedom used the same idea
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/kurdistanobserve/31-10-01-reu-tky-shut-kurdish
-radio.html (article below)
http://www.schoechi.de/crw/crw-kurd.html (Some Kurdish stations)
Turkey Shuts Radio Station in Kurdish Southeast
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Turkish prosecutors closed on
Wednesday a local radio station in the mainly-Kurdish southeast that had
broadcast songs in the Kurdish language.
Prosecutors said the decision had been taken because Gun Radyo's broadcast
frequency interfered with other wireless frequencies.
But station owner Nevzat Bingol labelled the decision "purely political" and
said authorities were trying to crack down on stations broadcasting in
Kurdish.
His local television station, housed in the same building, broadcast live as
officials came to confiscate radio equipment.
Like many other small stations trying to work around strict legal curbs on
Kurdish-language broadcasting, Gun Radyo had played Kurdish music as well as
Turkish and other songs.
DJs spoke Turkish between the songs.
Constitutional reforms passed last month as part of Turkey's efforts to meet
EU membership standards lifted legal curbs on TV and radio for the country's
estimated 15 million Kurdish citizens in their mother tongue.
But those changes have yet to be reflected in other laws, particularly laws
governing radio and television broadcasting. Gun Radyo was shut down under
those articles.
Many Turkish officials are wary of allowing Kurdish broadcasting, and still
maintain bans on Kurdish education. They see the language as a threat to
national unity and worry that allowing it might encourage violent Kurdish
separatism