the past and the present of book publishing in kurdish language in ...

It is obvious that poetry, novels and short stories prevail among both theoriginal works and translations. A large number of translated religious booksstands out among non-fiction books. While the percentage of translatedreligious books is 13,47 %, the ratio of original religious works is 2,89 %. Ibelieve that the small number of translations or original critical books andbooks in social and positive sciences has to do with problems of terminologyin written Kurdish and the inadequate Kurdish of those who have theknowledge to write in these fields. Written heritage on these topics is almostnon existent whereas there is a relatively rich heritage of poetry books.The 29 books published in 2004-2005 by the Kurdish CulturalFoundation in Stockholm can be added to the original and the translatedchildren’s books above. These books were published with the support of theSwedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). 18 werewritten in the Kurmanci dialect and 11 in the Kırmancki (Zazaki) dialect.They were distributed by the Kurdish Institute in Istanbul. They were printedin Turkey, some with a print run of 5000, others - with a print run of 2000or 3000 and were given away to children in towns where Kurds live (59).Among these books there are translations of works of authors like DanielDefoe and Victor Hugo.There are no Kurdish talkingbooks and audiobooks in Turkey for the visuallyimpaired. A few such Kurdish books have been prepared in Sweden (60).242.5 Book annotationsOne may come across Kurdis book annotations in Kurdish or Turkishnewspapers and magazines published by Kurds. They can also be found inmagazines of some Turkish political groups albeit very rarely.With the exception of the three publishers (61), all the others I havetalked to say they do not pay for reviews of newly published books inmagazines and newspapers. Only Deng Publishing House has a catalogue ofpublications. Most publishers have only one- or two-page lists of theirpublications. They provide these lists to distributors or bookshops or takethem to book fairs and other events.From time to time, the Roj TV broadcasting in Kurdish presents bookreviews but mostly of authors and publishers close to the PKK.I could not find any Kurdish publishers’ websites on the Internet. Some ofthe publishers say that they can not afford it.2.5.1 Annotations in publications in KurdishAfter 1990 the Kurds have published several newspapers and magazines.There are more than 20 bilingual periodicals and fewer ones just in Kurdishor in Turkish. In general the above-mentioned periodicals have had a short