ANKARA

Anadolu Agency launched its Persian wire service and officially opened its Tehran office Tuesday, with several of its stories, photographs and videos available to the public at http://www.aa.com.tr/fa.

A reception party was held simultaneously at the Tehran office and the Istanbul Persian Desk with the attendance of Anadolu Agency Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Director General Metin Mutanoglu.

"Persian service is specifically important for us because it will strengthen the brotherhood between Turkey and Iran, the key countries in the region," Mutanoglu said in Istanbul.

He said that the Persian service would become AA's ninth broadcasting language, in addition to Turkish, English, Arabic, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS), Russian, Kurdish, French and Albanian.

The agency's Persian News Editor Hikmet Gok also said that the launch was a significant step that would "make it possible for the peoples of Turkey and Iran to know more about each other".

Anadolu Agency (@anadoluagency) has been meticulous in its preparations for the launch of the Persian service, taking into consideration the social, cultural, historical, economic and geostrategic significance for Turkey of the Persian-speaking countries, which include Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

The Persian service, of which the beta version has been running for a while (https://www.facebook.com/anadoluagencypersian), has developed its technical infrastructure in order to broadcast news stories to media outlets in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan in their mother language.

Anadolu Agency’s Tehran-based Persian News Desk (@aa_persian) will widely report on developments in politics, economics, sports, tourism, life, culture and arts all over the world, with the aim of bringing a breath of fresh air to the Persian media landscape.

-Anadolu Agency’s Tehran office officially opens

A number of representatives from Iran's major media outlets, as well as Turkish and Iranian bureaucrats, attended the official opening ceremony of the agency's Tehran office Tuesday.

"This is a great step," Turkish Ambassador to Iran Riza Hakan Tekin said at the opening ceremony in Tehran, adding that media played a key role in relations between countries.

Iran, Afghan and Tajik media outlets will now have the opportunity to follow developments in all corners of the world, through the accurate and reliable stories published by the experienced team at AA’s Tehran-based Persian desk.

Anadolu Agency’s Persian service will be fully available to its subscriber media outlets on the Agency’s HAS interface while some of the service's news stories, photographs and videos will be available to the public on the AA website, at http://www.aa.com.tr/fa.

-About Anadolu Agency

Around 2,500 people from 79 nations work for Anadolu Agency in some 86 countries where the agency has its offices. Anadolu Agency, “the source of reliable news”, publishes on average 2,200 stories, 2,000 photos, 250 news videos and 10 infographics on a daily basis. Anadolu Agency has subscribers in 45 countries, publishing news stories in nine languages.

It is among the agency’s goals to broadcast news in 11 languages by 2020 -- its centennial anniversary.