Amira Howeidy assesses the likely impact of Turkey's new all-Arabic TV channel It started when Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of the January 2009 Economic Summit in Davos over Israel's 22-day war on Gaza, since then his popularity across the Arab world has continued to surge. In October 2009 Turkey cancelled a joint military exercise with Israel in protest at the Gaza war. In January this year, after Israel's foreign minister insulted Turkey's ambassador to Tel Aviv over a Turkish soap opera that depicted the Israeli army's war crimes, Ankara threatened to withdraw its ambassador if Israel did not apologise. Israel caved in and issued a public apology. Palestinian poet Murid El-Barghouti, a new comer to the micro-blogging social media website Twitter, captured the mood perfectly when he described Erdogan -- at last month's 22nd Arab summit in Sirte, Libya he was the only voice to use strong language to denounce Israel's Judaisation of Jerusalem, insisting that the "fate of Istanbul is inseparable from Jerusalem's" -- as "the only Arab in the summit". Such is the backdrop against which the state- owned Turkish TV and radio station TRT launched the first Turkish Arabic channel on 4 April. During the channel's opening ceremony Erdogan said that Turkey has solidified its relations with the Arab world during the past "seven and a half" years through economic and cultural investment (the volume of trade between Turkey and the Arab region is $27 billion) and described the Turks and the Arabs as being as close as "the fingers of the hand, like the nail and the flesh". Turkey, he continued, will not cease to react to the "burning of Gaza" or "when black clouds hover over Jerusalem, the apple of our eyes in our heritage". In focussing on the "common ground" between Turkey and the Arabs, Erdogan's 14 minute-long speech was a succinct statement of Ankara's priorities under the Justice and Development Party government. "Our past is the same and so is our future," said Erdogan. "When Abu Dhabi, Algeria and Tripoli are happy, rest assured that Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir are happy too." "The fate of Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus and Amman is not separate from Istanbul's," he added, "and as I said in Sirte, it is intertwined with the fate of Jerusalem and Gaza." Applause rocked the Ottoman Dolmabahçe Palace overlooking the Bosphorus, venue for the opening ceremony on 4 April. In Tel Aviv -- where they were watching closely -- the response was fast and furious. Israel's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the same day accusing the Turkish prime minister of "seeking to integrate with the Muslim world at Israel's expense". Commenting on Erdogan's references to Gaza and Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry said: "We suggest he find a more creative way, and to try to integrate with both the Muslim and Western worlds without turning into an extremist leader in the style of Hugo Chavez." The statement also took issue with Erdogan's concern over what he described as the "indifferent" murder of Gaza's children, suggesting that he sympathised with terrorists. "He should be equally concerned for the killing of innocent civilians in Pakistan and Iraq at the hands of terrorist groups," it said. The propaganda that preceded TRT's launch, including a live episode aired by Al-Jazeera's influential Ghassan Ben Jeddo on 3 April, presented the channel as a family- oriented TV station. Its director, fluent Arabic speaker Safar Toran, 48, a prominent TV journalist in Turkey who obtained his university degree in Egypt, where he lived and worked in the 1980s, insists that TRT Arabic's main aim is to introduce Turkey to the Arabs "directly". He downplayed the political impact of TRT, opting instead to emphasise its interest in exploring commonalties between Turkey and the Arabs and to reintroduce modern Turkey to Arab viewers almost a century after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The political undercurrents, though, are all too visible. Erdogan's opening speech made them obvious, as did Israel's response. In a telephone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly Toran said: "We might want to give priority to social and cultural issues that matter to the Arabs, but that does not mean we will neglect politics." Asked to respond to the Israeli Foreign Ministry's statement on Erdogan's opening speech, Toran said "it means nothing to us". The channel's primary interest, he added, is Turkey's relationship with the Arab world "so what matters to the Arabs matters to us". Few would dispute the fact that the issue of democracy or its lack, and the Arab-Israeli conflict, matter the most to the Arabs. Qatari-based Al-Jazeera's bold coverage of both may have ensured the channel a political role of sorts, but it has proved a bugbear in Doha's relations with most Arab capitals, not to mention Washington. So how far is TRT prepared to go in its endeavour to focus on what "really" matters to the Arabs? Toran provides a diplomatic reply: "We will definitely show interest in what brings us closer to the Arabs, but problematic areas are a red line." So closer to the Arab people or regimes? "That's up to you to interpret." The highlight of Toran's career as a journalist covering the political landscape in the Arab region -- including the Iraq war and Lebanon -- during the past decade was his coverage of Israel's last war on Gaza for the privately owned channel Seven. He aired shocking images of Israel's destruction of Gaza and killing of civilians during the 22-day military operation. Toran also hosted a series of political programmes on the war which had a huge impact on Turkish public opinion and contributed to the massive Palestine-solidarity demonstrations that followed. Given his background, the decision to appoint Toran to head Turkey's first Arabic TV station could not fail but be viewed as a political choice, in line with Turkey's official position on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Turkey follows Russia, France, Germany, the US and UK, all of which have launched Arabic TV channels to address the Arab world's population of 350 million. Yet the welcome TRT has received here sets it apart from the others. That welcome is a result of a complex interplay of factors, not least a shared history and religious beliefs, and, of course, a shared cuisine. It is no wonder that in the past two years Turkish dramas (dubbed by Syrian actors) have become instant hits across the Arab world. Dozens of Arabic satellite stations -- including Egyptian TV -- have purchased the broadcasting rights of Turkish soap operas to meet popular demand. Since its launch TRT's content has been more drama and entertainment focussed, with an abundance of promotional tourism clips. Its morning show, broadcast from Istanbul, is hosted by an Egyptian female presenter supplemented by co- hosts at TRT's Cairo and Beirut offices. There are plans that it should eventually include air- time from the Palestinian territories. The channel currently broadcasts only one news bulletin in the evening, but according to Toran there will be more news in the future. It is still unclear where Turkey's "soft-power" in the Arab world is heading. Erdogan is the only high profile politician in the region who criticises Israel -- Turkey's ally -- and prioritises the Palestinian question in his discourse on the Middle East. In a way this indirectly feeds Arab nationalism, which places the Palestinian question at the centre of its concerns. Ironically, Arab nationalism emerged in response to the Ottoman Empire. The dynamics might be too complex to decipher at this stage but this much is clear: the Turks have arrived.
