Anadolu Agency to start broadcasting in Kurdish

Turkey’s Anadolu Agency (AA), aiming to become one of the world’s top five news agencies by 2020, is preparing to begin broadcasting in Kurdish on September 1 within the scope of centennial vision. AA, opening an office in Irbil in regional administration in north of Iraq, will start Kurdish wire service in two dialects, Kurmanji and Sorani, this September. Kurdish will be the sixth language used by the agency, after English, Arabic, Bosnian and Russian. Kurdish News Desk covers a team of 40 people based in Ankara and Erbil. 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. Kemal Ozturk, Anadolu Agency Executive Board Chairman and Director General, visited the region and met with Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the regional administration in north of Iraq in May. Ozturk who also came together with media managers in Irbil and Suleymaniyah, explained AA's Kurdish News Desk project and took the demands. 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 will be broadcasted via the websites of  "http://www.aa.com.tr/kk" and "http://www.aa.com.tr/ks". The announcement of the Kurdish broadcast had come a year ago on the 92nd anniversary of the agency. Ozturk had emphasized that the use of Kurdish was part of their “Centennial vision”.