ARMENIAN PUBLISHERS LAUNCH TURKISH LITERATURE INITIATIVE

Today’s Zaman
Nov 6 2009
turkey

The virtual border between Turkey and Armenia will be crossed by
literature, following in the footsteps of protocols signed last
month between the two countries to re-establish diplomatic relations,
thanks to the efforts of Armenian publishers.

A number of Armenian publishers submitted applications to their
Turkish peers to get the oeuvres of 15 well-known Turkish poets
translated into Armenian as part of the Turkish Ministry of Culture
and Tourism’s long-running Translation Subvention Project (TEDA).

Among the poets whose work will be translated are Nazım Hikmet, Cahit
Sıtkı Tarancı, Orhan Veli Kanık, Oktay Rifat, Melih Cevdet Anday,
Attila İlhan, Necip Fazıl Kısakurek and Metin Altıok, among others.

A group of literary translators comprising lecturers from Yerevan State
University will translate the works into Armenian for publication
by the publishing house Amaras. The poetry leg of the project,
initiated by the Armenian Publishers Association and expected to be
completed in 2010, will be followed by the translation of selected
short stories and novels by Turkish writers, Ministry of Culture and
Tourism officials say. The ministry will lend support to the project
in both translation and publishing.

Around 30 Turkish literary works have been translated into Greek,
35 into Bulgarian and 10 into Arabic, in addition to the dozens of
titles translated into other major languages such as English and
German, as part of TEDA, which was launched in 2005.