Memorandum to CC CPSU from Turkmen CC on Extending Turkmen Foreign Broadcasting

CPSU CC
16897
3 May 1965
CONTROL
To be returned to the CPSU CC
General Department

29 April 1965
No. 2-35

Communist Party of Turkmenistan
Central Committee

CPsu CC

Ideological Directorate

People in the southern regions of Turkmenistan bordering on Iran and Afghanistan have access to programs broadcast by the Iranian department of the Voice of America as well as Gorganskoye radio and Iranian radio broadcast in Turkmen language. These radio stations provide distorted descriptions of life in the Soviet Union, particularly in Soviet Eastern republics, extolling the bourgeois way of life.

More than 500,000 Turkmen people live in Iran and Afghanistan.

In connection with the development of international ties among peoples of the East, and the acute need to organize counterpropaganda on the radio for the Turkmen population residing in the territory of Iran and Afghanistan, it is now necessary to develop foreign broadcasts in Turkmen and Farsi.

Presently, the State Broadcast and Television Committee of the TSSR Council of Ministers has the capacity to conduct foreign broadcasts for at least one hour a day. In 1963-1964, two 50 kW radio transmitters “Sneg” [Snow] were added, and in April of this year a modernized long wave radio transmitter RV-19, VESO-10 type, 50 kW, will replace an outdated 20 kW transmitter.

Thus, two shortwave transmitters RV-770 and RV-148 achieve a range of coverage up to 3000 kilometers and a long wave transmitter RV-19 generates a signal up to 500 km and guarantees quality reception of Turkmen radio programs in the northern parts of Iran and Afghanistan, where Turkmen live. At the end of 1965, after the introduction of a new radio center with a powerful 150 kW transmitter “Iney” [Frost], the coverage of Turkmen radio programs increased even further.

The radio committee requires an additional six employees to support a one-hour foreign broadcast, including an editor, a translator, and an announcer who speaks fluent Farsi.

The Academy of Sciences of TSSR and other institutions in the republic employ tens of comrades who have an impeccable knowledge of Farsi, and many of them wish to work for the radio. Therefore, finding the right staff for foreign broadcasts is not a problem.

This matter has been agreed upon with the State Broadcast and Television Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers.

Taking into account all of the above, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan has found it reasonable to ask CPSU CC during a performance assessment of the state Broadcast and television Committee of the TSSR Council of Ministers for permission to establish a foreign broadcast service in TSSR.

seCretarY of tHe turKmenistan CP CC

[signed] Y.  KHudanBerdYeV

2-shl