RFE/RL's TATAR-BASHKIR SERVICE

In Brief

• Languages: Tatar, Bashkir, Crimean Tatar
• Coverage: Four hours each day on SW and satellite; one additional hour on satellite; 10 minutes weekly on FM in Crimea
• Frequency: SW, Satellite
• Internet: www.azatliq.org

History

• The Tatar-Bashkir Service (Radio Azatliq) went on the air on December 9, 1953.
• As the Iron Curtain fell, Radio Azatliq began creating a network of regional correspondents, not only in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan but in neighboring regions in Russia with Tatar and Bashkir populations.
• The Kazan bureau of RFE/RL opened in 1997, allowing local staff to help with the preparation of programs.
• In 1998, Radio Azatliq signed a cooperation agreement with Tatarstan's then-state radio and teevision company to broadcast its programs on FM. Later, that partnership continued on frequencies newly created by the Yana Gasir radio company. The cooperation ended in January 2008, however, following political pressure from the federal government in Moscow.

Highlights

• Radio Azatliq was the first RFE/RL broadcast service to produce television programs. The project got off to a successful start in Kazan in August 2002 with a program moderated by Tatar-Bashkir Service Director Rim Gilfanov, using the studios of the service's local affiliate, Yana Gasir.
• The first TV program focused on the future of minority languages and media in a globalized world. The project served as a model for further RFE/RL programs in Tbilisi, Belgrade, and Sarajevo.
• The website of the Tatar-Bashkir Service was launched in 1999 and now serves as a key platform for delivering news and information.
• The Tatar-Bashkir Service has produced broadcasts in the endangered Crimean Tatar language since the 1960s. Programs in Crimean Tatar are aired twice weekly today and are retransmitted into Crimea. Crimean Tatars are an indigenous ethnic group from Crimea. In 1944, on orders from Stalin, all Crimean Tatars were deported from their homeland. They began returning only after the collapse of the Soviet Union.