Al Jazeera launches Turkish portal

Al Jazeera has gone live with a new Turkish language portal (aljazeera.com.tr), mobile applications and digital magazine.

The service, known as Al Jazeera Türk, will follow its initial digital launch with a TV channel, based in Topkapi, Istanbul.

Al Jazeera already has channels broadcasting in Arabic, English and local Balkan languages.

Commenting on the new launch, Al Jazeera Türk’s MD Ismail Kizilbay said: 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.”

Al Jazeera Türk’s news editor Gürkan Zengin said that the news centre is being built around the channel’s regional vision. “Eight different languages are spoken at our news centre. From Persian to Russian, we have colleagues from almost all regional languages.”

Yaser Bishr, executive director, strategy and development, 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.”