Kurdish Media

"Like all multi-lingual computing, Arabic computing is now firmly in the domain of Unicode. Unicode is an industrial protocol with the status of international agreement. It is designed to encode the elements of all known script systems in such a way that they become interchangeable between programs and operating systems. Its implementation is well underway.

Unicode eliminates the need to tamper with fonts to get special characters, but it is not a font. For legible text on screen and paper, Unicode depends on compatible fonts with the required characters, where necessary with additional dedicated font technology."

This chapter focuses on the Iraqi Kurdish response to the rapid and devastating advance of ISIS. Of course, the Iraqi Kurdish response to the ISIS advance has been a multifaceted, complex, and evolving one that includes military strategy, pragmatic politics, and aspirations of independence. Leaving aside the fact that the ISIS advance has granted the Iraqi Kurds unprecedented access to Iraq’s rich oil reserves and the fact that the initial Kurdish reaction was to ramp up their rhetoric toward complete secession from Iraq, this chapter focuses on two further dimensions of the Iraqi Kurdish response. Firstly, it documents the Iraqi Kurdish seizure of the so-called “disputed territories,” especially
Kirkuk, and their stated intent to hold a referendum on the future of these
regions (effectively to force a resolution to Article 140 of the constitution). Secondly, the chapter documents the Iraqi Kurdish use of the ISIS advance as leverage to enhance Kurdish relations dramatically with the US and Europe via direct military support (including airstrikes and weapons supply) and to become the key launchpad
in the fight against ISIS planned for 2015. The chapter concludes by briefly assessing the efficacy and wisdom of the Kurdish strategy of leveraging the ISIS onslaught to advance their own interests.

This paper explores English-Kurdish translations produced by the Kurdish section of the Voice of America (VOA). It is hypothesized that such translations are marked by unnaturalness and foreignness both in terms of linguistic and cultural aspects. This feature seems to be a peculiar characteristic that sets the VOA Kurdish apart from other media outlets producing Kurdish translations. Applying Venuti's (1995/2008) theory of foreignization and domestication and taking a translation-oriented textual analysis approach, the paper sets out to qualitatively examine a set of 15 English journalistic texts translated into Kurdish by the VOA Kurdish. The study encompasses both linguistic and cultural matrices to identify unnatural or foreignized translation occurrences, which are expected to be otherwise rendered naturally in other media outlets. The results of the study show that Kurdish translations produced by the VOA are peculiarly outlandish and orientated towards foreignization. For journalistic translations to be comprehensible by the target audience, media players ought to present their outputs, translation or otherwise, as naturally as possible. Therefore, the paper recommends that the VOA Kurdish change its tendency from foreignization to domestication.

The starting point of this research is to reveal the perception of TRT 6 (Şeş TV) by Turkey’s Kurdish community on the basis of “broadcasting in mother language.” TRT Şeş is a sub-channel of TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) -the state television of Turkey- and mainly broadcasts in Kurmanci dialect of Kurdish language in Turkey. The study had been carried out by the cooperation of Eksen Research Bilişim Company. The data collection phase of the research had been realized in two phases in September 2014, and their analyses had been performed in October 2014. In the study, the provinces in which the Kurds intensely live had been included in the sample. These provinces are Diyarbakır, Batman, Van, Şırnak, Hakkâri, Mersin, Adana, İzmir and Istanbul. In the area, questionnaire implementation through face-to-face meetings had been realized by the pollsters of Eksen Research Bilişim Company.  The study has been accomplished with the suport of research grant provided by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Sweden.

Giriş : Basın Düşüncelerin Yayılması ve Bilgi Alışverişi Dışında Millet ve ulusların Tanıtılması açısından önemli Rolü Bulunmaktadır, Kürt Ulusu Dönemin Sorunları nedeniyle Geç bir dönemde Basınla tanışmış ancak kısa süre içerisinde önemli Adımları Atmayı başarmıştır, tarihsel boyutlarıyla Basın ülkelerin ve ulusların siyasi, toplumsal ve ekonomik alanlarını etkilemiştir. Osmanlının Basınla tanışması Osmanlı imparatorluğunda Yaşayan Ermeni, Yahudi ve Rumların Basın ve yayın araçlarını işletmesinden sonra iki yüz yıl sonra olmuştur, adı geçen ulusların Dış dünyayla bağlantı halinde olması bu durumu etkilemiştir, Osmanlı Devletinin Baskı yöntemi kullanması ile basın uzun dönem sonra ancak yerleşmiştir, ilk Gazete Fransızca yayınlanan (Bulletin De Nouvelle) Adlı 15 günlük gazeteydi, sayfa sayısı 6-8 sayfa olan gazete İstanbul Fransa Elçiliğinde basılıp Fransız inkılabını osmanlı Tebaasına tanıtım amacıyla yayınlamıştır.

The Doğru Haber (True News) is the daily newspaper of the Kurdish-Islamist Free Cause Party with links to the Kurdish Hezbollah Organization and evaluates the Turkish politics from both a separatist and an Islamist point of view. The attitude of this national-Islamist daily newspaper towards important issues of Turkish politics (Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Syria, the ruling Justice and Development Party government, the April referendum for a constitutional amendment for the introduction of an authoritarian-presidential republic) in its headlines, news coverage and the columns is subjected to a qualitative media analysis. This study explores the political orientation of this daily.


Kürt Hizbullah Örgütü'ne yakınlığıyla bilinen Kürtçü-İslamcı Hür Dava Partisi'nin yayın organı olan Doğru Haber, Türk siyasetini bölücü ve irticai bir perspektiften değerlendirmektedir. Bu milliyetçi-İslamcı günlük gazetenin Türkiye'nin gündemindeki önemli meselelere bakışı (Türkiye, Irak ve Suriye Kürtleri, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi iktidarı ve otoriter başkanlık sistemine geçmek amacıyla yapılan halk oylaması) manşetler, haberler ve köşe yazıları temelinde kalitatif medya analizi yardımıyla çözümlemeye tabi tutulmuştur. Bu araştırma bu parti yayın organının bağlı olduğu Hür Dava Partisi'nin yayın organının siyasal yayın çizgisini analiz etmeye hedeflemektedir.

During the onslaught of the Islamic caliphate on Kobanî, Syria, media outlets across the globe broadcast pictures of brave and often unveiled Kurdish women fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a quintessentially male force of destruction. The images of women fighting Islamist male aggressors aroused outrage, admiration, and pity among observers. But had all Kurdish fighters been male or had women fought for ISIS, viewers might have reacted differently. To examine some of the most widely disseminated gendered pictures and videos of the Syrian uprising in the media, this article draws on Mohja Kahf’s three categories, which typify how Muslim women, Arab women, or both are perceived by the Anglophone reading and viewing public: the first is victims; the second, escapees; and the third, pawns of patriarchy and male power. While this typology helps in examining gendered images of the Syrian uprising, it also obscures the socioeconomic realities on the ground.

For migrant communities residing outside of their home countries, various transnational media have played a key role in maintaining, reviving and transforming ethnic and religious identities. A vital element is how media outlets report and represent ethno-national conflict in the home country. Janroj Yilmaz Keles here examines how this plays out among Kurdish and Turkish communities in Europe. He offers an analysis of how Turkish and Kurdish migrants in Europe react to the myriad mediated narratives. A vital element is how media outlets report and represent the ethno-national conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdish PKK. Janroj Yilmaz Keles here offers an examination of how Turkish and Kurdish migrants in Europe react to the myriad narratives that arise. Taking as his starting point an analysis of the nature of nationalisms in the modern age, Keles shows how language is often a central element in the struggle for hegemony within a state. The media has become a site for the clash of representations in both Turkish and Kurdish languages, especially for those based in the diaspora in Europe.
These 'virtual communities', connected by television and the internet, in turn influence and are influenced by the way the conflict between the Turkish state and subaltern Kurds is played out, both in the media and on the ground. By looking at first, second and third generations of Turkish and Kurdish populations in Europe, Keles highlights the dynamics of migration, settlement and integration that often depend on the policies of each settlement country. Since these settlement states often see the proliferation of such media as an impediment to integration, Media, Diaspora and Conflict offers timely analysis concerning the nature of diasporas and the construction of identity.

“This book makes an important contribution to diaspora media studies in general but its originality and particular significance lies in its rich empirical investigation of the intersections between Kurdish and Turkish nationalism and transnationalism, and the role of the media in conflict. Janroj Keles offers a study that is truly impressive in its scope and understanding but it is also a sobering account of banal transnationalism. He demonstrates how, paradoxically, transnational media de-territorialise Turkish and Kurdish ethno-national conflict but at the same time make that conflict an integral part of migrants' everyday lives in Europe. A must-read for scholars and students interested in the enduring significance and everyday mediation of ethno-national identities”. - Marie Gillespie, Professor of Sociology, The Open University


“Sometimes when we witness a great idea at work, we wonder “why didn't anyone think of this before?” I had this feeling reading Janroj Keles's book. He has used great works on nationalism and media, from thinkers like Benedict Anderson and Antonio Gramsci, to shed light on a phenomena many people may have noticed but not thought deeply enough about: The homeland nationalisms of diaspora communities. Whether speaking about Jews and Palestinians or Armenians, Sikhs, Irish and others, it often seems that communities far removed from their homelands harbor more rigid identities and less compromising national ideologies than their kin back home. In a clear yet theoretically informed analysis, Dr. Keles uses the Turkish and Kurdish cases to illuminate the phenomenon and show how transnational media plays a key role in this process. His study is based on extensive fieldwork and interviews with migrants.

Readers interested in nationalism, media, migration and multiculturalism will of course have an interest in this study. In an increasingly globalized, interconnected world, however, this study should be of interest to just about anyone. In today's world, even someone who has never left their hometown likely has a neighbor, friend or colleague who has left their homeland yet still cares about events there deeply. Dr. Keles’ book offers a good deal of insight into how and why this happens.”

David Romano, Professor of Middle East Politics, Missouri State University

Abstract
This book examines the role of the transnational media in articulating and mobilizing different political and identity positions for migrants. It explores the complex linkages between Kurdish and Turkish transnational ethnic media and migrant communities. It is based on 74 in-depth interviews and 6 focus groups with Kurdish and Turkish migrants of diverse age, gender, political affiliation, occupation and length of migration in London, Berlin and Stockholm. Drawing upon the concepts of “imagined community” (Anderson 1991)and “banal nationalism” (Billig 1995), it seeks to understand how migrants make sense of the media representations of the ethno-national conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurds and how they position themselves in relation to these media texts. The study explores how the media impact differentially on migrants’ views and ethnic identities in the three countries.

This book argues that transnational media speak on behalf of the nation to the nation, even if the members of these imagined national communities live in different places, connecting people across different geographical spaces and thus building transnational imagined communities. They create a sense of belonging to a meaningful imagined community defined as “our” nation. The mediated Turkish-Kurdish ethno-national conflict has contributed to this transnational imagined community. The analysis of interviews found that the mediated conflict has hardened ethnic-based divisions and differentiation between Kurdish and Turkish migrants in Europe. Transnational media have contributed to deterritorialization, differentiation and division among migrants. Kurds and Turks have developed distinct identities in Europe and cannot be viewed any longer as a homogeneous group. The study concludes by suggesting a three-way framework for the analysis of ethno-national identities of migrants, taking into account firstly the country of settlement, secondly Turkish and thirdly Kurdish media as significant in constructing imagined national communities.

Keles, Janroj Yilmaz (2015) Media, Diaspora and Conflict  Nationalism and Identity amongst Turkish and Kurdish Migrants in Europe. London, Newyork:I. B. Tauris

Towards the end of the decade long Iran–Iraq war, Saddam Hussein launched a deadly attack against the Kurds, known as the Anfal Campaign, killing more than a hundred thousand. One of the largest acts of genocide occurred on 18 March 1988 in the Kurdish city of Halabja. On that day, sweet-smelling poison gas was poured over the city, killing at least five thousand. Since 2001 Kurdish moviemakers have memorialized the tragedy of the Halabja massacre by producing cinematic dramas and narrative documentaries. These films are part of a discourse of authenticity and a politics of culture that permeate the Kurdish independence movement. This essay proposes that Halabja films can be divided into three stages: the era of consolidation, 2000 to 2009; the golden era, 2009 to early 2014; and the fall which followed the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Each era reveals new attitudes towards politics, society, and the massacre.

A global trend of popular talent shows that had already captured much of the globe from the US to Turkey, the UK to the Arab world, recently spread over to Kurdistan, a geographical region shared among four nation-states in the Middle East, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. As well as its severely fragmented geography, art and popular culture in Kurdistan reflect an equally fragmented portrait (which is evident in almost all fields of life). Accordingly, we cannot separate this state of fragmentation from Kurdistan’s existing political realities and their political/social psychological impositions on the people living within its borders.

Based on the comparison of the Kurds from different parts of Kurdistan taking part in a single singing contest called Xoshtrin Dang (Kurdish version of “the Voice”), this article sheds light on the Turkish Kurds’ inadequacy and alienation experiences in the Kurdistani cultural and political space. Then l touch upon the possible causes and effects of these experiences based on their reflections on the popular cultural level as a potentially conflict-prone zone.

I argue that the Kurds from Turkey show stronger sings of alienation due to the bigger ‘success’ of the assimilationist policies of Turkey as a major NATO ally, EU candidate, geographically, economically and politically more modern liberal nation state compared to other countries sharing the region of Kurdistan. The higher the integration to the global economy and culture the stronger the countries are in assimilating local populations as evident in several examples including the UK vis-a-vis its Irish, Scottish and Welsh populations. Although Turkey has never been as politically modern and economically well corporate as the UK or France, still it has been introduced to the Middle Eastern countries as a "model" of liberal democratic country with a Muslim majority population. However when it comes to the issue of autochthonous peoples’ linguistic, cultural, political rights, Turkey has been reluctant to grant rights onto them claiming recognition of ethnic groups would be a betrayal to the liberal democratic system, returning back to pre-modern "feudal structures" embedded in the locale and eventually lead to their secession. Therefore it has tried to reduce the rights of the Kurds to minority rights framework rather than local people’s right to self rule. According to this view, Turks and Kurds are all equal abstract ‘citizens’ given the Kurdish language bans have been lifted recently. However the norm is still to speak and use Turkish language in public and in most socio-cultural spaces. This approach inevitably leads-at least- to linguistic assimilation.

In the article I am presenting concrete observations from the singing contest (TV show) taking place in Iraqi Kurdistan and attended by Kurds from Turkey and Iran, as well. I am pointing out to the sharp divergences/differentiation between the Turkish Kurds on one side and the Iraqi and Iranian Kurds on the other. The knowledge and comfort to speak the Kurdish language, the obvious differentiation of the ‘modern’ Western style dressed Kurdish contestants from Turkey singing  Western music oriented songs with the operatic singing techniques as opposed to Iraqi and Iranian Kurds in traditional costumes singing mostly classical/traditional Kurdish songs with a particular throaty style. The title of my article implies an interesting pattern which repeats several times in all episodes of the auditions. Turkish Kurds prefer saying ‘Spas!’ (Thanks!) to the judges and other TV staff for any comment they receive from them. The Turkish Kurds sound like English learning foreigners who keep saying words such as: “Yes””No” “OK!” and “Thanks!” as they feel inadequate in and alienated from their mother tongue which is under the risk of dropping down to a second language.
I conclude the article by briefly emphasizing the risks of the abovementioned experiences of the Turkish Kurds for a stable political/social psychology both among the Kurds and the Turkish society, at large.

Web-based Kurdish media have seen a tangible growth in the last few years. There are many factors that have contributed into this rapid growth. These include an easy access to the internet connection, the low price of electronic gadgets and pervasive usage of social networking. The swift development of the Kurdish web-based media imposes new challenges that need to be addressed. For example, a newspaper article published online possesses properties such as author name, gender, age, and nationality among others. Determining one or more of these properties, when ambiguity arises, using computers is an important open research area. In this study the journalist’s gender in web-based Kurdish media determined using computational linguistic and text mining techniques. 75 web-based Kurdish articles used to train artificial model designed to determine the gender of journalists in web-based Kurdish media. Articles were downloaded from four different well known web-based Kurdish newspapers. 61...

For migrant communities residing outside of their home countries, various transnational media have played a key role in maintaining, reviving and transforming ethnic and religious identities. A vital element is how media outlets report and represent ethno-national conflict in the home country. Janroj Yilmaz Keles here examines how this plays out among Kurdish and Turkish communities in Europe. He offers an analysis of how Turkish and Kurdish migrants in Europe react to the myriad mediated narratives. A vital element is how media outlets report and represent the ethno-national conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdish PKK. Janroj Yilmaz Keles here offers an examination of how Turkish and Kurdish migrants in Europe react to the myriad narratives that arise. Taking as his starting point an analysis of the nature of nationalisms in the modern age, Keles shows how language is often a central element in the struggle for hegemony within a state. The media has become a site for the...

Ortadoğu’nun iç içe geçmiş birçok sorunu barındırdığı bir gerçektir. Ancak, ne Ortadoğu ne de halkları, olumsuzluklarla özdeşleştirilmiş bir imaja mahkum edilmemelidir. Ortadoğu ülkeleri,halklarından aldıkları güçle ve iç dinamiklerini seferber ederek barışçıl bir kalkınma seferberliği başlatacak potansiyele sahiptir. Bölge halklarının bir arada yaşama iradesine, devletlerin egemenlik haklarına, bireylerin temel özgürlüklerine ve hürriyetlerine saygı, gerek ülkeler arasında gerek ulusal ölçekte kalıcı barışın ve huzurun temin edilmesinin ön şartıdır. Ortadoğu’daki sorunların kavranmasında adil ve gerçekçi çözümler üzerinde durulması, uzlaşmacı inisiyatifleri cesaretlendirecektir Sözkonusu çerçevede, Türkiye, yakın çevresinde bölgesel istikrar ve refahın kök salması için yapıcı katkılarını sürdürmelidir. Cepheleşen eksenlere dâhil olmadan, taraflar arasında diyalogun tesisini kolaylaştırmaya devam etmesi, tutarlı ve uzlaştırıcı politikalarıyla sağladığı uluslararası desteği en etkili biçimde değerlendirebilmesi bölge devletlerinin ve halklarının ortak menfaatidir

In this commentary the news practices of Kurdish women media has been examined in terms of gender and human rights-based journalism. The work emphasizes the significance of an ethnographic method on studying a minority media since it discusses that the method broadens perspectives in order to understand different dynamics of news making process. This study is mainly based on the author’s MA dissertation which focused on a Kurdish women news portal, Gazete Sujin, in 2017.