Solidarity actions to help the Kurdish channel
Kurdish political women prisoners of Diyarbakir E type started a donation campaign for Roj TV. It is reported that the women prisoners started the campaign after the Belgian police raided Roj TV studios in Brussels and damaged the equipment. So far 450 TL has been collected and it will be delivered to the television by the families.
The last big operation was on 4 March this year. Dozens of arrests were carried out once again by the Belgian authorities acting on request from Turkey. And indeed Turkish policemen took part in the raid at Roj Tv studios which were destroyed. The television as a result of this clearly politically motivated operation suffered a €1.2 million loss in material damage.
From Med Tv to Roj Tv
Roj Tv was born as Med Tv on 30 March 1995. On 14 April of that year it broadcast the founding congress of the Kurdish Parliament in exile. Over the years in the four parts of the divided Kurdistan (Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria) as well as all over the world the satellite dishes grew like mushrooms to receive the precious signal which was coming from Europe to give the Kurds everywhere images and voices of their country. Med Tv was broadcasting from Belgium and soon Turkish pressures convinced the local authorities to act against the television. In September 1996 with a massive police operation Med Tv is raided, its staff detained, archives seized.
In February 1997 the MGK (Turkish National Security Council) asks once again for the closure of Med Tv. But is after the arrest of the Kurdish leader, Abdullah Ocalan, that things turn for the worst for the television. On 22 March 1999, a month after the capture (as a result of an international plot) of Ocalan in Kenya, the English ITC revokes the license and Med Tv cannot broadcast anymore. But the Kurds don't accept this abuse and open a new television channel, Medya Tv, this time in France. It does not go too well, but a new license is obtained by CTV based in the Vatican. And after a short period it is Denmark that give the new licence. The Kurdish channel begins broadcasting once again, first with the name Mesopotamia Tv and then with the name Roj Tv.
Roj Tv has a very various programming, from news, to in depth investigation programs, from live music programs to live debates. It broadcasts in Kurdish (Sorani, Kurmanci and Zazaki) as well as in Turkish.
ANF / DIYARBAKIR
