The Crimean Tatar television channel ATR resumed broadcasting from Kiev. The TV channel owner Lenur Islyamov announced that at the press conference.
“Our office is located at 15 and 17, Vavilov St. We rented two buildings, it is the engineering centre of TV channel creation. We rented it. There is everything needed in this engineering centre, we went on the air there yesterday. It was safe broadcasting. We have archives and journalists as well, a clipping room was also provided for us,” Islyamov said.
He provided statistics on how many people of Ukraine watched the TV channel.
“4.5 million people watched us in Ukraine, about 1.5 million – in Crimea. We were rated higher than STB, Inter and 1+1 channels. It is because we created the honest channel,” Lenur Islyamov said.
The head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Ukrainian people’s deputy Refat Chubarov said that the ATR wouldn’t take money from the country’s government.
“ATR will keep its independence, because it won’t take money from its own government,” he said.
Chubarov said that he received a lot of heartwarming comments from Crimeans in the evening of June 17, when the ATR resumed its programs.
“If you looked at the segment, where there were not only Crimean Tatars, but also those who live in Crimea, then you would see that there was explosion of emotions. I was surprised at the comment of one girl: she wrote that her mother was sitting and waiting for the start of the broadcasting two hours before the program started,” Chubarov said.
He added that the ATR is a channel “that became not only a spiritual mouthpiece of the Crimean Tatars, but also a virtual platform, behind which all Crimean Tatars united.”
As a reminder, on April 1, the unique TV channel broadcasting in the Crimean Tatar language was closed in Crimea.
