State radio on protest

ISTANBUL

The staff of Turkey’s state-run radio and television broadcaster, TRT, staged a musical protest yesterday against the handing over of the iconic TRT Istanbul broadcasting house to the United Nations for use as a regional office. Protesters demanded the Ministry of Culture cancel the agreement between the Turkish Foreign Ministry and TRT and return the broadcasting house to TRT staff to be put back in use. The United Nations will be opening a regional office in Istanbul to deal with women’s issues, including societal gender equality and domestic and other violence directed at women in countries spanning from Europe to Central Asia. The office will begin operating by January of 2013 at the latest and will be situated in the TRT Istanbul radio building as proposed by the Foreign Ministry.