It is not unusual to see English and Russian versions of Armenian news sites. But something unusual has started to occur recently, as some news sites in Armenia have added a Turkish language section to their pages.
On the front page of Tert.am, the words, "Şimdi Türkçe" or "Now in Turkish" appear brightly colored in fuchsia. Just a click away, it is possible to see the headline story on the Turkish page, which was launched only a couple of weeks ago: "Prosperous Armenia Party Will Vote against Protocol Ratification Only in Case of Preconditions." Two advertisements also appear on Tert.am’s Turkish front page.
Sonya Apresova, an editor from Tert.am, said they have 12 percent growth each day in page views of the Turkish section of the site and that their visitors are not only from Turkey, but also from Armenia, the United States and Europe, especially in Germany, where about 2.5 million people of Turkish decent live.
When it comes to their visitors from Turkey, Apresova said that they are mostly from Ёstanbul, but overall visitors from 16 cities have checked out their Turkish portal, including Ankara, Adana, Bursa, Ёzmir, Manisa, Antalya, Diyarbakэr, Erzurum and Samsun. "Our readers — mostly Armenians living in Turkey — used to send us letters, asking if it was possible to translate some news into Turkish. And now that the Turkish version exists, we’re getting a lot of feedback. It’s always interesting for people living in Turkey to get opinions from Armenia," said Apresova.
Another news site with Turkish pages in addition to its Armenian, English and Russian-language pages is News.am. "News.am is a relatively new online news resource. It started this year. Tert.am started last year. Both News.am and Tert.am are competing for the same market," said Artur Papyan from the Yerevan Press Club.
The pioneer in Turkish-language Web sites in Armenia is Azg.am, which is the Web arm of the Azg Daily newspaper.
Hagob Avedikian, editor-
He said when they started, they received various responses from their readers, from "sound comments" to "curses."
"It was an adventure for us then. Now, Turkish-Armenian relations have become a major topic, so we should enlarge the Turkish section," he said, adding that they have only about 10 news stories and articles translated from Armenian to Turkish because they cannot afford to do more. Avedikian also said they have been encouraged to expand their Turkish site since they’ve received an advertisement from a Turkish fragrance company which is seeking partners in Armenia.
Developments regarding Turkey-Armenia relations have helped to increase Azg.com’s Turkish readership, he said. Their daily number of hits on the Turkish site was about 180 before the Oct. 14 soccer match between Turkey and Armenia in the northwestern Turkish town of Bursa. But a day after the game, they received about 350 hits.
"This is a good development, that people want to know what Armenians think," he added.
After months of furious diplomacy, the two countries took a significant step on Oct. 10 as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoрlu and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan signed protocols in Zurich to improve relations. Both countries should have the protocols ratified in their parliaments within a "reasonable time frame."
Turkey severed diplomatic ties with Armenia and closed its border in 1993 in protest over the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. There has been optimism following both countries’ gestures in September of last year, when Turkish President Abdullah Gьl accepted Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan’s invitation to watch a game between the national soccer teams of both countries. Sarksyan was in Bursa on Oct. 14 to watch the
"When there is a development in Turkey related to relations with Armenia, I would like to know how it was reflected in Armenia," said Demet Bilge Ergьn, the news editor from Radikal daily. "I found out that Tert.am had started publishing news in Turkish, and now I go to that site every morning after reading the Turkish newspapers."
Erdinз Ergenз, an editor with Sabah, said as a journalist, he feels obligated to know what the other side "says and does" and that a good way to do it is to go to the Turkish-language sites in Armenia.
"It would be important for journalists at least to know what the other side is doing in this process," he said. However, he added, it is "sad to see" that the Turkish side is not involved in a similar effort to publish news from Turkey in Armenian.
There are, however, growing efforts in that regard. The Turkish-Armenian community’s weekly Agos has started to post Armenian news in Turkish as a part of the project "Neighbors about each other," made available for public use by the Civilitas Foundation, based in Armenia, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF).
Artak Shakaryan, Armenia-Turkey project manager for the EPF, said every day over the last few weeks an article from the Turkish media has been translated into Armenian and posted online at http://www.caucasusneighbors.com/
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