Al Jazeera Launches Turkish Service

ISTANBUL: Al Jazeera has launched in Turkey with an online portal, mobile applications and digital magazine, with a TV channel to come later.

Al Jazeera Türk is available in the Turkish language. It is the latest member of the Al Jazeera Media Network, which already has channels broadcasting in Arabic, English and local Balkan languages. The network’s news channels have an extensive newsgathering reach with more than 80 bureaus across all the continents of the world.

Ä°smail Kızılbay, the managing director of Al Jazeera Türk, commented: "We have defined our target audience as any geography where Turkish is spoken—Turkey in particular. This means roughly 130-140 million people in Europe, Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East."

Gürkan Zengin, Al Jazeera Türk's news director, said: "Accurate and objective news, equal treatment to different opinions, and always being on people's side will be the basic pillars of our reporting." He added: "Eight different languages are spoken at our news center. From Persian to Russian, we have colleagues from almost all regional languages."

Yaser Bıshr, the executive director of strategy and development at Al Jazeera, said: “Al Jazeera Turk is an important new member to the Al Jazeera Network, serving an important geopolitical market. To launch on digital first continues Al Jazeera’s tradition of innovation.”