Serhat TV, a local channel based in Turkey’s northeastern city of Kars, starts a program exchange with an Armenian counterpart, Lori TV. The border between the two countries is closed only at a symbolic level, the Serhat TV team says after paying a visit to Armenia and seeing the extent of Turkish business activity there
A local initiative in the northeastern city of Kars to develop Turkish-Armenian relations is moving strongly ahead as national efforts lag.
Two local television stations from both sides of the border between Turkey and Armenia, Kars’ Serhat TV and Lori TV from the Armenian city of Gyumri, are supporting the normalization process between the two countries by collaborating onan exchange of television programs.
Serhat TV is the first and only local TV station in Kars. It is owned by former mayor Naif Alibeyoðlu.
The project aims to break down prejudices between the two nations, said Serhat TV coordinator Alican Alibeyoðlu, who added that a substantial proportion of the people support the opening of the border gates.
To help the two nations learn more abouteach otherand to promote the cities of Kars and Gyumri, a team of five people from Lori TV first came to Kars in August. The team filmed footage and interviews with people to promote Kars and broadcast its documentary program in Gyumri. After this, Lori TV then invited a four-person team from Serhat TV to visit Armenia in December.
Cross-border visits
Though the distance between Kars and Gyumri is just 70 kilometers, due to the closed border gates, the Serhat TV team could only reach the Armenian city after traveling some 500 kilometers across Georgia and returning the same way.
During its three-day stay in Gyumri, the Serhat TV crew made footage to promote the city and asked local Armenians about the relations between the two countries.
“We had had some prejudices prior to our visit to Armenia. But we were shocked at what we saw,” said Alibeyoðlu. “Some 150 Turkish trailer trucks on average enter Armenia fromGeorgia each day. Turkish goods have an 80 percent share at stores and markets. The two countries organize reciprocal flights. The borders are just symbolically closed. All are waiting for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the opening of the borders.”
Anchorman Özgür Tuðrul said he was surprised to meet, during some on-the-street interviews, some old Armenian women who knew Turkish well.
“Culturally, the two nations resemble each other very much. This is a fellowship project. Our goal is to develop friendship between journalists of the two countries,” he said. “Our Armenian colleagues visited us, and then we went there. A mutual trust has been formed. Particularly youth are more peaceful and request the opening of the border.”
Noting that Turks and Armenians have been living together in this region for centuries, he said: “There were some prejudices in my mind while I was going to Armenia, but most of them have now been overthrown. With the program we made in Kars, we overthrew prejudices. They were quite friendly to us. Our cultures resemble each other a lot. We aim to develop relations in this region.”
The footages and interviews in Gyumri were broadcast as a three-episode documentary under the name “Yakýndaki Uzaklar” (Close, Yet Far). Kars citizens were pleased with it, according to Serhat TV representatives, and additional programs will be shot within the framework of the cooperation project.
