ANKARA
Turkey’s Anadolu Agency (AA), aiming to become one of the world’s top five news agencies by 2020, has begun broadcasting in Kurdish on September 1 within the scope of its centennial vision.
AA, opening an office in Irbil in regional administration in north of Iraq, has started Kurdish wire service in two dialects, Kurmanji and Sorani, in September.
Kurdish is the sixth language used by the agency, after Turkish, English, Arabic, Bosnian and Russian.
Kurdish News Desk Service will broadcast the developments in politics, economy, sports, tourism, culture and life in Turkey and the world in Kurmanji and Sorani dialects with photo and video for the region.
Kurdish News Desk covers a team of 40 people based in Ankara and Irbil.
The Kurdish news stream went on test broadcast after the training of Kurdish news desk personnel was completed, with the full-fledged wire-service planned to be put in operation.
Within the scope of the project, AA opened a representation in Irbil while the central offices in Suleymaniyah and Kirkuk are on the way.
Kurdish language-news is broadcasted via the websites of "http://www.aa.com.tr/kk" and "http://www.aa.com.tr/ks".
"AA to lay a bridge between Kurds and Turks"
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, stating that AA would lay a bridge between Kurds and Turks via broadcast in Kurdish, said:
"AA will be a powerful bridge between Turkey and the Kurdish community with Kurdish broadcast as well as in other languages like Bosnian in the Balkans and Arabic in the Middle East."
The announcement of the Kurdish broadcast had come a year ago on the 92nd anniversary of the agency.
AA Board Chairman and Director General Kemal Ozturk had emphasized that the use of Kurdish was part of their “centennial vision”.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
