The tune might belong on a German bandstand. But while the orchestra’s from Bonn, the music isn’t...
The choir is Kurdish; they’re singing of an independent homeland - to unite a people carved up between four countries.
Although they don’t have a nation state, they DO have a television station. Until last month it broadcast to thirty-five million Kurds from its Brussels.
When it started 15 months ago, its very existence triggered wild enthusiasm.
Ilhan Kizilhan: Our people never expected they can have such contact to Television, because press in their homeland. It was a great moment for the people and therefore the support is very great. Just to give you an example: People went to the market and sold their animals just to have the dishes and to show MED TV. And not only becomes one of the important issues of the Kurdish life and Kurdish society.
trade in satellite dishes mushroomed in south-east Turkey, which officially doesn’t even admit that a separate Kurdish people exists.
The Kurdish press is strictly censored. MED TV beamed calls for an independent Kurdistan straight into people’s living rooms. People watched despite reports that the authorities had smashed dishes and arrested viewers.
MED TV also addresses the thousands of Kurds who have fled to Europe... There are over half a million in Germany alone. Memet Levent and his family are among them. When they sought asylum here, MED TV was a lifeline...
Memet Sadik Levent: To tell the truth, when my family and I used to watch MED TV, we felt as though we were in Kurdistan. When it closed down each evening , we felt we were no longer there.
Memet’s two wives - Guler and Sakine - try to preserve their Kurdish lifestyle. The family says its village in Turkey - a PKK stronghold - was constantly raided by shelled by Turkish forces. Sakine claims she fled after being arrested and tortured.
Sakine Levent: They tortured us a lot. Of course - as a woman - I can’t tell you exactly what they did. One just cannot talk about it. They could do what they liked to you.
The family’s table talk is all Kurdish - neither Sakine or Guler speaks any other language...the station’s demise has left them isolated.
When we had MED TV in our house we had something enjoyable in our lives. We would get up in the morning and wait all day for five o’clock - when we would watch MED TV. Our life was nice. We want our television back. We’ll burn ourselves if we can’t have it.
MED TV claims to be the voice of ALL Kurds. Its newsroom prepares bulletins in 6 separate dialects and languages spoken by this disparate people.
But Turkey says it’s the propaganda arm of the PKK - an organisation waging an armed struggle for Kurdish self-determination.
Zafer Arapkirli (London Correspondent ‘Cumhuriyet’ newspaper): Turkey says that the western countries, the western states should ban this Television station, which is a mouthpiece as it looks of the PKK. And Turkey has applied a lot of pressure on the western governments to stop the broadcast of MED TV which they claim is disseminating ethnic hatred and encouraging the activities of the PKK both at home and abroad.
MED TV’s headquarters are here in London’s Regent Street. Like any other independent channel in this country it’s regulated by the Independent Television Commission. The ITC say’s there’s no evidence MED is supported by any political body. And - although it does have a file of complaints from viewers - it believes MED has shown “due impartiality”.
Guy Phelps (Independent Television Commission): The evidence of our monitoring is that we’re at this stage satisfied that MED TV is not breaching our codes. I think any Kurdish service that did not recognise the fact that the PKK exists and is very much involved in the situation out there at the moment could not be a fair refection on what is happening.
But - although the channel has a clean bill of health from its regulator, it’s been off air for more than a month. The staff turn up to work - only to sit in the canteen. Ostensibly, the reasons are technical: MED TV produces its programmes from its Brussels studios... They are then linked to its headquarters in London, where the company is officially licensed.
It needs a contract with any one of dozens of European telecommunications companies to send its material up to... Eutelstat - a European satellite which than beams it back down to earth.
MED TV claims Turkey has pressurised telecommunications companies into cancelling their contracts.
Ilhan Kizilhan: They had a lot of diplomatic work with governments et cetera. And after then they got in contact with different kind of countries where we had or leased our satellites. They did a lot of business agreements with them. With one option don’t give MED TV satellite or licence and this has continued until 2nd July when they closed and seized our broadcasting.
MED’s director showed us the names of ten thousand private donors, which he claims proves the station’s 30 million pound costs from Kurdish individuals and businesses.
Ilhan Kizilhan: We have a list that shows which people give how much give how much and what time. And we have also the original invoices of them.
Interviewer: You say you’ve given this to Scotland Yard?
Ilhan Kizilhan: We’ve given this and another five sets we have already together to the Scotland Yard and they prove it. And they’re satisfied with the situation.
Interviewer: So how can they tell that this name is not a PKK person for example.
Ilhan Kizilhan: We don’t have 10,000 Kurdish members in Europe.
Maybe not - but it can be hard to unravel the PKK from the broader community. The banner says “long live the PKK” and its political and armed wings... This meeting, in Germany, like those organisations, its illegal. But it’s also a social event - the Levent family is here with there baby. The collection box goes round for the Kurdish crescent. It could just have easily been for MED TV which people here regard as a part of their national identity.
“MED TV. What can I say?” says this man. “It was a ray of light. It informed forty million people of their culture, traditions, their language, everything.”
Another says: “For the last seventy years, since the Turkish republic was formed, they’ve gagged us. This television station has let us speak again. We need it to sort out our problems.”
Julian Costly - (Chief Executive, Maxat Ltd): The technology of satellite which allows broadcasting across a broad footprint for Europe is very attractive for minority groups or for small channels that need to get to large audiences. It’s effective in satellite because of the reduction of the costs moving from analogue to digital. Another factor is that the environment for production in the UK under the ITC is extremely favourable.
But - on the ground - in Europe there is concern that the battle for Kurdistan may be fought out on its streets. In Germany, some Turkish businesses were attacked after a recent hunger strike by prisoners in Turkish jails.
This Turkish centre was firebombed last week. Huysen Bash was asleep in the building at the time.
Heysen Bash: It was quite clear somebody was trying to burn us to death. I just wanted to get out.
Although he insists the centre is cultural, it may have links with the far right. Huysen Bash suspects groups like the PKK of carrying out the attack - and blames MED TV for legitimising PKK activities.
Pauline Green MEP (leader socialist group, European Parliament); every time you mention the word Kurd you get a vitriolic campaign from Turkish authorities saying you’re a supporter of PKK terrorists. It’s absolutely unacceptable. The words Kurds and PKK and terrorism are not synonymous.
At MEDs London headquarters, the messages of support are flooding in. Volunteers plough their way through the letters and faxes. Some - undoubtedly - are from PKK supporters. Most are from ordinary Kurds for whom a television station - like an independent state - is a dream, for which they are unlikely to stop fighting.
The choir is Kurdish; they’re singing of an independent homeland - to unite a people carved up between four countries.
Although they don’t have a nation state, they DO have a television station. Until last month it broadcast to thirty-five million Kurds from its Brussels.
When it started 15 months ago, its very existence triggered wild enthusiasm.
Ilhan Kizilhan: Our people never expected they can have such contact to Television, because press in their homeland. It was a great moment for the people and therefore the support is very great. Just to give you an example: People went to the market and sold their animals just to have the dishes and to show MED TV. And not only becomes one of the important issues of the Kurdish life and Kurdish society.
trade in satellite dishes mushroomed in south-east Turkey, which officially doesn’t even admit that a separate Kurdish people exists.
The Kurdish press is strictly censored. MED TV beamed calls for an independent Kurdistan straight into people’s living rooms. People watched despite reports that the authorities had smashed dishes and arrested viewers.
MED TV also addresses the thousands of Kurds who have fled to Europe... There are over half a million in Germany alone. Memet Levent and his family are among them. When they sought asylum here, MED TV was a lifeline...
Memet Sadik Levent: To tell the truth, when my family and I used to watch MED TV, we felt as though we were in Kurdistan. When it closed down each evening , we felt we were no longer there.
Memet’s two wives - Guler and Sakine - try to preserve their Kurdish lifestyle. The family says its village in Turkey - a PKK stronghold - was constantly raided by shelled by Turkish forces. Sakine claims she fled after being arrested and tortured.
Sakine Levent: They tortured us a lot. Of course - as a woman - I can’t tell you exactly what they did. One just cannot talk about it. They could do what they liked to you.
The family’s table talk is all Kurdish - neither Sakine or Guler speaks any other language...the station’s demise has left them isolated.
When we had MED TV in our house we had something enjoyable in our lives. We would get up in the morning and wait all day for five o’clock - when we would watch MED TV. Our life was nice. We want our television back. We’ll burn ourselves if we can’t have it.
MED TV claims to be the voice of ALL Kurds. Its newsroom prepares bulletins in 6 separate dialects and languages spoken by this disparate people.
But Turkey says it’s the propaganda arm of the PKK - an organisation waging an armed struggle for Kurdish self-determination.
Zafer Arapkirli (London Correspondent ‘Cumhuriyet’ newspaper): Turkey says that the western countries, the western states should ban this Television station, which is a mouthpiece as it looks of the PKK. And Turkey has applied a lot of pressure on the western governments to stop the broadcast of MED TV which they claim is disseminating ethnic hatred and encouraging the activities of the PKK both at home and abroad.
MED TV’s headquarters are here in London’s Regent Street. Like any other independent channel in this country it’s regulated by the Independent Television Commission. The ITC say’s there’s no evidence MED is supported by any political body. And - although it does have a file of complaints from viewers - it believes MED has shown “due impartiality”.
Guy Phelps (Independent Television Commission): The evidence of our monitoring is that we’re at this stage satisfied that MED TV is not breaching our codes. I think any Kurdish service that did not recognise the fact that the PKK exists and is very much involved in the situation out there at the moment could not be a fair refection on what is happening.
But - although the channel has a clean bill of health from its regulator, it’s been off air for more than a month. The staff turn up to work - only to sit in the canteen. Ostensibly, the reasons are technical: MED TV produces its programmes from its Brussels studios... They are then linked to its headquarters in London, where the company is officially licensed.
It needs a contract with any one of dozens of European telecommunications companies to send its material up to... Eutelstat - a European satellite which than beams it back down to earth.
MED TV claims Turkey has pressurised telecommunications companies into cancelling their contracts.
Ilhan Kizilhan: They had a lot of diplomatic work with governments et cetera. And after then they got in contact with different kind of countries where we had or leased our satellites. They did a lot of business agreements with them. With one option don’t give MED TV satellite or licence and this has continued until 2nd July when they closed and seized our broadcasting.
MED’s director showed us the names of ten thousand private donors, which he claims proves the station’s 30 million pound costs from Kurdish individuals and businesses.
Ilhan Kizilhan: We have a list that shows which people give how much give how much and what time. And we have also the original invoices of them.
Interviewer: You say you’ve given this to Scotland Yard?
Ilhan Kizilhan: We’ve given this and another five sets we have already together to the Scotland Yard and they prove it. And they’re satisfied with the situation.
Interviewer: So how can they tell that this name is not a PKK person for example.
Ilhan Kizilhan: We don’t have 10,000 Kurdish members in Europe.
Maybe not - but it can be hard to unravel the PKK from the broader community. The banner says “long live the PKK” and its political and armed wings... This meeting, in Germany, like those organisations, its illegal. But it’s also a social event - the Levent family is here with there baby. The collection box goes round for the Kurdish crescent. It could just have easily been for MED TV which people here regard as a part of their national identity.
“MED TV. What can I say?” says this man. “It was a ray of light. It informed forty million people of their culture, traditions, their language, everything.”
Another says: “For the last seventy years, since the Turkish republic was formed, they’ve gagged us. This television station has let us speak again. We need it to sort out our problems.”
Julian Costly - (Chief Executive, Maxat Ltd): The technology of satellite which allows broadcasting across a broad footprint for Europe is very attractive for minority groups or for small channels that need to get to large audiences. It’s effective in satellite because of the reduction of the costs moving from analogue to digital. Another factor is that the environment for production in the UK under the ITC is extremely favourable.
But - on the ground - in Europe there is concern that the battle for Kurdistan may be fought out on its streets. In Germany, some Turkish businesses were attacked after a recent hunger strike by prisoners in Turkish jails.
This Turkish centre was firebombed last week. Huysen Bash was asleep in the building at the time.
Heysen Bash: It was quite clear somebody was trying to burn us to death. I just wanted to get out.
Although he insists the centre is cultural, it may have links with the far right. Huysen Bash suspects groups like the PKK of carrying out the attack - and blames MED TV for legitimising PKK activities.
Pauline Green MEP (leader socialist group, European Parliament); every time you mention the word Kurd you get a vitriolic campaign from Turkish authorities saying you’re a supporter of PKK terrorists. It’s absolutely unacceptable. The words Kurds and PKK and terrorism are not synonymous.
At MEDs London headquarters, the messages of support are flooding in. Volunteers plough their way through the letters and faxes. Some - undoubtedly - are from PKK supporters. Most are from ordinary Kurds for whom a television station - like an independent state - is a dream, for which they are unlikely to stop fighting.