Kurds on way to launching new s

[root at newsdesk.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: Re: Kurds on way to launching new satellite TV station; 23/1/95
Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl

------ Forwarded from : Haldun Haznedar <haldun at avalanche.micro.ti.com> --------

By Peter Warg

Cairo (Variety) - A Kurdish separatist movement is reportedly wheeling out a
new weapon in its struggle for an independent Kurdistan - a TV station from
outer space, well outside the artillery range of its earthbound Mideast
adversaries.

The region's first Kurdish-lingo satellite TV channel is planning to take to
the skies during the first half of this year and is operated by the
Marxist-oriented Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), according to a report in the
Ankara-based Turkish Daily News.

The English-language daily, quoting sources close to the PKK, said that the
channel would be called MED-TV and broadcast from Britain to the Mideast via
satellite.

The PKK has long been a major headache for the Turkish government. The party's
guerrilla wing has turned much of southeastern Turkey into a civil war zone.
PKK has also claimed responsibility for numerous bomb attacks on Turkish
diplomatic missions and businesses in Europe.

The Daily News reported that the space TV project was receiving financial
backing from unidentified Kurdish businessmen in the West. It said that further
details of the project were expected to be announced in coming weeks.

There are an estimated 22 million Kurds living in the Middle East - mostly in
Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. They speak an Indo-European language distinct
from Turkish or Arabic, but closely related to the Persian spoken in Iran.

If the sat station gets off the ground, it will mark a new milestone in the
Kurdish independence movement - and a tool for helping to enhance a Kurdish
national identity. As such, it can hardly expect a warm reception from the
governments of those countries where Kurds constitute sizable and often
fractious minorities.

Kurdish nationalist aspirations have long been suppressed in these countries
- especially Turkey, which has in the past suppressed the public use of the
Kurdish language.

----------------------------- End forwarded message --------------------------

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