Kurdish newspaper in Iraqi Kurdistan starts Turkish-language version

Source: kadinhaberi.com (Turkish)

Türkiye'nin Kürtçe televizyonu yayın hayatına geçirmesinin ardından şimdi de Irak Kürdistanı'ndaki Kürtler Türkçe gazete çıkarmaya başladı. Haftalık gazete önceki gün piyasaya çıktı.

After Turkey's move to start broadcasting in Turkish, now Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan have begun a newspaper in Turkish. The weekly newspaper went on the market for the first time yesterday.

Merkezi Erbil'de bulunan ve Kürtçe yayın yapan Hewler Post gazetesi, internet üzerinden Türkçe yayına başladı. Erbil merkezli 'www.hewleronline.com' adlı internet sitesine bağlı Türkçe yayın yapacak olan 'hewlerpost.com' adlı web gazete 21 Mart'ta yayına girdi.

The Kurdish-language Hewler Post based in Arbil (the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan) has begun a Turkish version. On the 21st of March the Turkish version at www.hewlerpost.com went online as part of the www.hewleronline.com site.

...Hewler Post gazetesinin ilk sayısında, gazetenin genel yayın yönetmeni Rebwar Kerim Weli, Kürtlerin hiç bugünkü kadar Türkçe bir gazeteye ihtiyaç duymadığını belirtti. Weli, bunun nedeninin, Kuzey Iraklı Kürtlerin Latin alfabesi kullanmaması olduğunu belirterek, sadece Türklerin Kürtleri değil, Kürtlerin de Türkleri anlayamıyor oluşundan yakındı.

...in the first edition of the Hewler Post, the chief editor of the newspaper Rebwar Kerim Weli said that Kurds up to now have never felt the need for a Turkish newspaper. Weli said that a reason for the newspaper was that Kurds in Northern Iraq don't use the Latin alphabet, and that it not only do Turks not understand Kurds but Kurds don't understand Turks either.

It also mentions that it's beginning as a weekly and hopes to publish daily later on.

The pdf for his editorial is here and I'll mention a few parts that are of particular interest.

Bugünkü dünyada, teknoloji sayesinde artık insanları birbirlerinden koparacak hiçbir engel kalmadı. Ama ne yazık ki bizim en büyük ve en etkili komşumuzla, yani Türkiye ile, en büyük sorunumuz “anlama” sorunudur. Biz bir dönemler büyük Osmanlı iparatorluğunun bir paçasıydık. Şairlerimiz ve ediplerimiz eğer Türk dilini bilmeseydiler bu onlar için büyük bir eksiklik olarak kaydediliyordu.

In the world today, thanks to technology people have nothing keeping them from each other. But unfortunately we have a problem of understanding with our largest and most influential neighbour, Turkey. We were once a part of the Ottoman Empire. If our poets and scholars hadn't known the Turkish language it would have been a great shortcoming for them.

Bizim Türkiye’ye çok büyük bir ihtiyacımız var. Türkiye demokrasiye ve medeniyete ulaşmamız konusunda bizim için rüyalarımızın kapısıdır.

We really need Turkey. Turkey is the door to our dreams in our reaching democracy and civilization.

Bölgede çok şey değişti. Ancak bölge milletleri hiç bugünkü kadar birbirlerine ihtiyaç duymadılar. Kaynaklar dünyada sınırlı hale geldi ve insanların gelecekte yaşayabilmeleri için birbirlerine yardım etmeye ve yardımlaşmaya ihtiyaçları var.

Many things have changed in the region, but the people in the region haven't felt the need for each other as much as they do today. Resources in the world are now limited and people need to help each other in order to be able to live in the future.


Of course, one other reason for a publication is that there are a lot of people in Northern Iraq that use Turkish, estimated to be from about half a million to 2-3 million, so it's not merely about "let's try to understand Turkey" for Kurds alone. You can see a map of different ethnic groups in Iraq here.

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I want subtitles in TRT 6 (TRT Şeş) too / Ben de TRT Şeş'te Türkçe altyazı istiyorum

TRT 6 is TRT's television channel broadcast in a number of languages, including Kurdish. I've never seen the channel before but apparently it's broadcast in the language alone, without Turkish subtitles, and there's a post here asking for subtitles in Turkish. Actually there should be subtitles available in the language itself anyway (some people are hard of hearing), but subtitles in Turkish would be a good idea too. One might ask "well, why should we subtitle our language in Turkish when broadcasts in Turkish aren't subtitled in Kurdish as well?" but in my opinion the benefits outweigh this, because Turkish subtitles will enable the broadcasts to be understood by just about everyone in the country, as well as people in a huge number of other areas from Germany to Bulgaria to Gagauzia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus and so on. Subtitling broadcasts in Turkish will also enable Turks interested in learning Kurdish to learn the language that much easier.


I'd also like to see more subtitling by default and less dubbing throughout the world. Often even nothing whatsoever would be preferable. Nothing's worse than watching a broadcast on CTV and having the interpreter come in as soon as a politician says anything in French (often just repeating the same thing they just said or will say in English). In a country with a fair amount of bilingual speakers I just know there are a few million others that agree with me. The less dubbing we have of the language the more people will be encouraged to learn French.

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