“It is not unusual to see English and Russian versions of Armenian news sites. But something unusual has started to occur recently, as some news sites in Armenia have added a Turkish language section to their pages,” the Turkish Zaman daily reads.

The daily mentions NEWS.am news agency, Tert.am and Azg.am (the pioneer in Turkish-language websites in Armenia).

The source quotes the editor of Tert.am website Sonya Apresova, stating “they have 12 percent growth each day in page views of the Turkish section of the site and that their visitors are not only from Turkey, but also from Armenia, the United States and Europe.”

“News.am is a relatively new online news resource. It started this year. Tert.am started last year. Both News.am and Tert.am are competing for the same market,” said the Yerevan Press Club member Artur Papyan.

Zaman also cites Turkish Sabah daily editor Erdinc Ergenc who said that “he feels obligated to know what the other side &‘says and does’ and that a good way to do it is to go to the Turkish-language sites in Armenia.” Ergenc stated that “it is ‘sad to see’ that the Turkish side is not involved in a similar effort to publish news from Turkey in Armenian.”

NEWS.am agency started broadcasting in 2009. Presently it tops the Circle.am rating under News, Media and Reference category and takes the 4th line among Armenian websites. Near 360 000 readers have visited the website within last 30 days and surfed over 1.3 million pages.