About TRT Deutsch

TRT Deutsch

TRT Deutsch is the German-language digital news service of TRT, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, Turkey's national public broadcaster. Launched in January 2020 and based in Berlin, it operates primarily online, through its website and YouTube channel, delivering news and current-affairs content in German with a particular focus on the Turkish diaspora in Germany and on German domestic affairs. At launch the service presented itself with an explicit editorial positioning against right-wing radicalism and Islamophobia and against all forms of discrimination, declaring its commitment to a plural, liberal-democratic society. As one of TRT's international digital outlets alongside services such as TRT World in English and TRT Arabi in Arabic, TRT Deutsch extends the Turkish public broadcaster's global media strategy into the German-language space. With current video reports from 2026 covering demonstrations in Berlin and Frankfurt, the service remains an active voice in Germany's online news landscape.

Overview

TRT Deutsch is best understood as the German-language arm of TRT's international digital news operation. TRT, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation headquartered in Ankara, is Turkey's national public broadcaster, founded in 1964 for radio and 1968 for television and owned by the Government of Turkey. Over the past decade TRT has built a portfolio of international news services aimed at audiences beyond Turkey's borders: TRT World in English, TRT Arabi in Arabic, TRT Russian, TRT French, TRT Spanish and others, most of them operating primarily as digital platforms with video at their core. TRT Deutsch, launched in January 2020, is the German entry in this portfolio.

The service is based in Berlin and publishes in German. Its target audience includes the Turkish diaspora in Germany, a community of nearly three million people of Turkish roots, about half of whom hold German citizenship, as well as German-speaking audiences interested in Turkey-related news and in the service's take on German domestic affairs. The editorial mix combines coverage of German politics and society, news from Turkey, international affairs with an emphasis on the Middle East and Turkish foreign policy, and stories at the intersection of the two countries: integration debates, Islamophobia, discrimination, and the political relationship between Berlin and Ankara.

The launch statement, published in German on the service's website, set out an explicit editorial identity: a clear positioning against right-wing radicalism and Islamophobia as well as against all forms of discrimination, and a commitment to a plural, liberal-democratic society. This positioning spoke directly to the experience of the Turkish community in Germany, which has been the target of far-right violence and discrimination, and it distinguished TRT Deutsch from the start as a service with a defined perspective rather than a neutral wire.

The service operates as a digital newsroom: a website, social media channels and a YouTube channel carrying video reports, interviews and explainers. The 2026 uploads illustrate the output: reports on demonstrations in Berlin criticizing the federal government's foreign policy, and coverage of a Frankfurt demonstration against US and Israeli policy in the Middle East that also criticized Chancellor Friedrich Merz's foreign policy. These are the stories of street-level politics and foreign-policy debate, produced in German for a German-based audience.

History

The launch of TRT Deutsch in January 2020 came at a moment of rapid expansion for TRT's international operations. The Turkish public broadcaster had already established TRT World as its English-language flagship and was rolling out digital news platforms in additional languages, including Russian, French and others. Germany was a logical next market: it hosts by far the largest Turkish diaspora in Europe, a community with deep media consumption habits and a strong interest in both German and Turkish affairs, and the German media market offered no comparable Turkish-state-backed German-language news service.

The service began with a beta version of its website, accessible alongside a YouTube presence, and was staffed from Berlin. The launch was noted in the media press as Turkey's public broadcaster opening a digital operation in Germany, and the launch statement's emphasis on opposing right-wing radicalism and Islamophobia was widely quoted. The timing was significant: the launch came just months after the far-right terrorist attack in Halle in October 2019 and amid ongoing debates about racism and right-wing extremism in Germany, giving the new service's positioning immediate relevance.

The early months of the operation were marked by a violent incident that underscored the tensions around it. In March 2020, a German neo-Nazi group sent a package containing a pig's head and letters insulting Islam and the Turkish president to TRT's Berlin office, an attack reported by Turkish and international media. TRT's management condemned the attack, and the broadcaster's leadership stated that such attacks strengthened the determination of its journalists. The incident illustrated the hostile environment in which a Turkish state-backed newsroom operates in Germany, where it is viewed with suspicion both by far-right groups and by critics of the Turkish government.

Since then the service has continued to publish as a digital newsroom, covering German politics, Turkish affairs and international news for its German-language audience. Its YouTube channel carries current reports from 2026, demonstrating ongoing editorial activity six years after the launch. The service has thus established itself as a durable, if politically contested, part of Germany's online news landscape.

Coverage and Content

The editorial coverage of TRT Deutsch spans German domestic affairs, Turkish news and international affairs, with a distinctive emphasis on the issues that concern the Turkish diaspora and on stories involving discrimination, Islamophobia and right-wing extremism.

German domestic coverage follows federal politics, state affairs and social debates, often with attention to how policies and political rhetoric affect immigrant communities. The 2026 reports illustrate the approach: a Berlin demonstration criticizing the federal government's stance in an ongoing conflict, with protesters arguing that Germany is a party to the war, and a Frankfurt demonstration against American and Israeli policy in the Middle East at which participants also criticized Chancellor Friedrich Merz's foreign policy. These are movement- and street-level stories, reported with sympathy for the demonstrators' perspective.

Turkey-related coverage follows Turkish domestic politics, the economy and foreign policy for an audience that maintains close ties to the country. International coverage emphasizes the Middle East, Turkish foreign relations and global affairs from a perspective aligned with Ankara's view of the world. Across all three areas, the service's declared opposition to Islamophobia and discrimination shapes the story selection: incidents of anti-Muslim hatred, debates about immigration and integration, and far-right activity in Germany receive prominent attention.

The format is digital-first: short video reports, interviews and explainers designed for YouTube and social distribution, supplemented by text articles on the website. The production language is German throughout, and the visual grammar follows the conventions of contemporary online news video. For the Turkish diaspora audience, the service offers something no German domestic outlet provides: German-language news with a Turkish perspective, produced by a newsroom that shares the community's background.

Organization and Ownership

TRT Deutsch is a service of TRT, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu), Turkey's national public broadcaster. TRT was founded on 1 May 1964 as a radio broadcaster and began television broadcasts on 31 January 1968; it is headquartered in Çankaya, Ankara, and its owner is the Government of Turkey. TRT Deutsch operates from Berlin as the German-language unit of TRT's international digital news division, alongside sister services such as TRT World, TRT Arabi, TRT Russian, TRT French and TRT Spanish.

The state ownership of the parent broadcaster is the central fact for understanding TRT Deutsch's position in the German media landscape. As a service of Turkey's public broadcaster, it operates within the editorial framework of an institution closely associated with the Turkish state, and its coverage of Turkish politics in particular is viewed by critics through that lens. At the same time, the service's Berlin newsroom produces original German-language journalism for a German-based audience, and its declared editorial commitments, against right-wing radicalism, Islamophobia and discrimination, and for a plural liberal-democratic society, define its public stance in Germany.

Publicly confirmed details about the size of the Berlin newsroom and the names of its current editors are limited in the sources consulted for this profile. At the time of the 2020 launch, the service's editor-in-chief was quoted in coverage of the attack on the Berlin office, but this profile does not assert current personnel details that could not be verified.

Digital Presence

TRT Deutsch is a digital-only news service: it has no print edition and no linear television channel. Its website is the text home of the operation, carrying news articles and features in German, while its YouTube channel is the primary video platform, with current uploads from 2026 demonstrating ongoing production. The service also maintains presences on the major social platforms under the TRT Deutsch name, distributing its video and text content to audiences on Facebook, X, Instagram and similar services.

This digital-first structure is shared with TRT's other international language services and reflects the broadcaster's strategy of reaching diaspora and international audiences where they actually consume news: on phones, on social feeds and on video platforms rather than on scheduled television. For a German-language service aimed partly at younger members of the Turkish diaspora, the YouTube-centered model is a natural fit.

The Berlin base gives the service a physical newsroom in the country it covers, and the combination of a German website, German-language video and German social media channels makes TRT Deutsch a fully localized operation within the global TRT network. Six years after its January 2020 launch, it remains an active, publishing newsroom, and its continued output in 2026 confirms its place as a persistent, state-backed voice in Germany's German-language online news market.