Turkey's outreach to minorities sees a boost in funds for dailies and weeklies published by those communities. A state-run agency will hand out TL 200,000 ($44,838) to publications in the Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities.
The program was launched in 2011 to help financially struggling presses belonging to communities concentrated in Istanbul. Every year, an average TL 150,000 is allocated for newspapers. The Press Advertising Authority (BİK) oversees the program that aims to promote freedom of expression. Weeklies will be granted TL 28,000 each, while dailies will receive TL 36,000. The only requirement to be entitled to funds is that the publication has to have been in circulation for at least 10 years.
Since 2011, BİK has supplied cash assistance of TL 1.1 million to minority newspapers, including Normarmara, Jamanak, Apoyevmatini, Agos, İho and Şalom.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), BİK Chairman of the Board Adnan Ertem said those newspapers were barred from publishing commercials of state-run agencies - a major revenue for many local newspapers - but a regulation in 2012 enabled them to do so. He added this still failed to generate revenues for these newspapers to sustain themselves. Ertem says there are only six newspapers eligible for the funds.
İvo Molinas, editor-in-chief of Şalom, a Jewish community weekly, told AA that they welcomed the decision to grant funds and provide aid every year. "These newspapers cannot benefit from revenues from ads as a larger circulation is needed to have these ads. [The funds) are an affirmative action by the state to help our newspapers struggling for survival," Molinas said.
In the past decade, Turkey has moved to reinstate the rights of minorities and help their survival as their numbers have dwindled over time. Long treated as second-class citizens, the Greek, Jewish, Armenian and Syriac communities have lauded the efforts for the return of their rights, although they have complained about it being a slow process. Actions such as the controversial wealth tax imposed in 1942 that targeted rich non-Muslims, a pogrom in 1955 and the deportation of non-Muslim Turkish citizens in 1964 added to "a fear of the state" among non-Muslim minorities, forcing a large number of people to leave the country.
