Syrian culture flourishes in Istanbul

By Sarah Jilani

From the fourth floor of an apartment block dwarfed by skyscrapers in Istanbul’s dense business district, an Arabic radio station broadcasts news, cultural programmes and music around the clock. Its work is challenging for two reasons: technically, because it must maintain its 24-hour broadcast to some of the most violent and unpredictable areas of the Middle East; and socially, because it seeks to give Syrians a way of reconnecting with a community that has been scattered around the world.

Radio Sout Raya’s executive producer is Ali Safar, a writer, poet and critic who was programmes director at a Syrian television channel before he and his family joined the millions of Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey in 2013. The station’s audience of displaced Syrians stretches across Turkey, Syria and Jordan. While Safar is based in Istanbul, his wife and teenage daughter live, for now, in the south-eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border.