ISTANBUL – The Turkish Directorate for Religious Affairs, a state organ that oversees religious life in Turkey, will translate the Koran into Kurdish, daily newspaper Vatan reports today.
After Kurdish the Koran will also be translated into other languages spoken in Turkey, like Azeri and Georgian. The Koran was already translated into Turkish in the nineteen twenties. That translation was initiated by Turkey’s founding father Atatürk. He modernized Turkey and put religion under state control, and translating the Koran was part of that. The same motive now leads to a Kurdish translation: various existing Kurdish Korans will be examined and converted into a version suitable for use by Turkish Kurds.