Istanbul courts have only three Kurdish translators

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The courts have the authority to summon unlisted translators if necessary, and those on trial can also bring in their preferred translators. Hürriyet photo

Only three Kurdish translators are presently on the Istanbul Justice Commission’s list of experts, on which a total of 58 translators are currently employed, and thousands of others involved in various different subjects.

Lawyers, doctors, TV presenters, teachers, art historians, customs officials, bankers, dentists, insurance officials, artifact experts and thousands of others from a variety of occupations were listed as part of the experts list, which added up to a total of 7,739 individuals.

Translators included speakers of languages including German, Bulgarian, English, French, Romanian, Armenian, Greek, Polish, Italian, Arabic, Persian, Japanese and Ottoman. Translators need to provide officials with notary-approved oaths before being assigned to cases, if the need arises. Two of the three listed Kurdish translators are reportedly police officers.

The courts have the authority to summon unlisted translators if necessary, and those on trial can also bring in their preferred translators.

However, commission officials voiced concerns over the lack of regulative authorities over language barriers, claiming that the notary-approved oath has little worth if the translators are not checked by officials.

The commission will specify languages that are in need of translators in the official list by April 15. Individuals will be able to apply to the commission to become official translators until June 17.