The Russian government has decided to launch Voice of Russia transmissions in both the Kirmanji and Sorani Kurdish language dialects, according to Shorish Khalid, representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Russia. Currently the station’s management are negotiating with Kurdish language specialists, recruiting staff and sorting out technical details, he says.
“Most of the problems are because few of the Kurdish people in Russia speak the Sorani dialect, but Kirmanji dialect speakers include most of the Kurds of the former USSR as well as a large number of both Syrian and Turkish Kurds. So the officials are not ready to transmit the programmes in the Kirmanji dialect only,” said Khalid.
(Source: PUKmedia/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)