Turkey's Arabic TV begins broadcasting

TRT Director-General Ibrahim Sahin said Sunday that TRT's new channel would enable Turkey and Arab countries to know each other directly and better.

Sahin said at a ceremony at Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace marking the opening of the TRT Arabic that the TV channel would reach 350 million people throughout the Arab world through 3 satellites.

"The TRT Arabic will be on air for 24 hours a day. We will broadcast a range of programs from politics to sports, from movies to TV series. Istanbul-based channel will also broadcast live from Cairo, Beirut, Damascus and Ankara," he added.

Turkish State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said that they did a good job by opening Turkish state-run TRT Arabic Channel.

Speaking in Istanbul on Sunday regarding the opening of the TV channel, Arinc said, "we, as the peoples of the same geography, culture, history and belief, will be able to reach each other through TRT's channel."

Arinc said that they had been working on TRT Arabic for the last one year, adding that they would reach more than 300 million people through the channel.

TRT launched "TRT Arabic" on April 4 to meet demands of the Arabic speaking people in Turkey as well as concerns of Middle Eastern countries.

TRT Arabic also intends to reach the Arab world of 350 million people by addressing 22 Arab countries.

The channel will broadcast in Arabic round the clock, and feature women and children's programs, floor shows, documentaries and news.

Most of the programmes will be presented by people from Arabic-speaking countries.

Three different satellites, Turksat 3A, Arapsat and Nilsat, will provide transmissions for the TRT Arabic.

Established on May 1, 1964, TRT Ankara Television started its first test-runs in 1968. TRT's second channel TRT-2 went on air in 1986. TRT's international channel TRT-INT started broadcasting in Europe in 1990. Last year, TRT began broadcasting in Kurdish.


/World Bulletin/