Diyarbakır university set to open first faculty of communication in Kurdish

DİYARBAKIR - Anadolu Agency

Universities in the Turkey's southeastern provinces, including Mardin's Artuklu University (pictured) attract a growing number of students. AA photo

Turkey's first faculty of communication to give instruction in Kurdish is set to open in the next academic year at Diyarbakır's Dicle University.

Scholars said the faculty would teach students who would choose elective classes on how to redact news articles in Kurdish.

"We will have a special program designed for preparing news in Kurdish. We will start with 30 students in the first stage. All the infrastructure of the faculty is ready. We already have started to publish a newspaper," said the faculty's deputy dean, Sabri Eyigün.

One professor, two assistant professors and four lecturers have been hired by the university for the upcoming year. However, due to a bureaucratic delay, the first students will not be able to enroll until 2014.

Eyigün stressed that they aimed to train future journalists who would work in Turkey's southeastern provinces, noting that the official Anadolu Agency was also starting to operate in Kurdish.

"There is no other university where the faculty of communications teaches in Turkish, English and Kurdish together," he said.

Eyigün also emphasized the need for PR specialists mastering the Kurdish languages in the wider region.

"There are many Turkish firms working in the neighboring countries, especially Iraq, but they have serious problems in communicating. Perhaps many firms will open PR offices in neighboring countries, counting on our students," he added.

This year will also see the first graduates from the Kurdish Department of Living Languages Institute at Mardin's Artuklu University, who will be expecting their maiden appointments as Kurdish teachers in public schools.