Turkey's Kurdish TV Gamble: an Update

According to Radikal, Kurdish singer Rojin -- one of the biggest stars of TRT Ses, Turkish state television's newly launched Kurdish channel -- has just quit the network. "Imagine a program where the host does not know who is invited and cannot decide on her own guests," the singer said in a released statement, claiming that some of the things she wanted to say on her show were censored. "The program is treated as a potential crime and the host as a potential criminal," she said.

As noted in a previous post, the launching of TRT Ses was an important move, but the network could only succeed if it does things without the presence of a heavy state hand. If Rojin's departure is really because of what she says (some of the big names appearing on the network have come under strong pressure from hardline Kurds to quit, so that could also be a reason) then TRT Ses might be in trouble.