Russian Radio’s Kurdish Service Keen to Expand but Struggling for Trained Staff

By Khoshawi Muhammad


MOSCOW- The state-run Voice of Russia is keen to expand its Kurdish-language service beyond just the daily hour-long programs in Kirmanji, but its Russian and Kurdish staff says the biggest challenge is finding qualified reporters, journalists and translators.

“We are trying to recruit more reporters,” says Julia Saeed, a historian from Russia who is married to a Kurd and manages the Kurdish service. “We are only broadcasting in the Kirmanji dialect because our current staff members are all Russian citizens and we do not have Kurds who speak other dialects,” she adds.

Voice of Russia, or RUVR as it is officially known, is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service. It broadcasts in 40 languages on the shortwave and FM bands and is among the top five radio networks in the world. The Kurdish section was launched in 2008, largely through the combined efforts of the radio’s Asia and Middle East expert, Michael Barishov, and some Russian Kurds.

According to Saeed, who speaks Kirmanji well but throws in words in Russian, the radio reflects the ideology and policies of the Russian government.

At the radio’s Kurdish section, where the Russian and Kurdish flags are on display side-by-side,  broadcaster and translator Mustafa Sino’s complaint about the difficulties of finding staff with professional journalism training is immediately evident: None of the Kurdish section staff has media training, but each one person has been motivated by a love of the work and the Kurdish language.

“Our problem in the beginning was a shortage of experts in media and language, but in the five years we have worked we have gained experience and are now better than before,” notes Sino.

He believes that the launch of the Kurdish service is an indication of Russian foreign policy in the region. “It means the Kurds are an important factor in the Middle East,” he says, adding it shows that Moscow has noticed the growing importance of the Kurds on the regional stage and wants to talks to them in their own language.

The Kurdish section staff consists of Kurds from Turkey and Syria, as well as Kurdish-Russians and Russians who speak Kurdish.

Sino regrets the lack of cooperation between the radio and media in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, and says that the Ministry of Culture in Erbil can help improve RUVR broadcasts.

“A number of journalists from south Kurdistan came and interviewed us but we have not formed any official relationship with the Kurdish media,” he explains. “We hope we will cement such a relationship with the Kurdish media soon since it is very important for us.”

The Kurdish service of the RUVR has two programs, one prepared by the Russian staff and sent to the Kurdish section for translation and broadcast, and the other original content produced by the Kurdish section itself.

Kamiz Shadadi, another translator and presenter, says that the difficulties of finding people means that the section only has one reporter in Suleimani and another in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s Kurdish heartland.

“Another issue is that we are broadcasting only in the Kirmanji dialect. Translation is also a major problem for us, because we do not have a standardized Kurdish language and every translator is using his own knowledge to translate the materials,” Shadadi explains.

In the Kurdistan Region, RUVR’s Kurdish programs used to aired on FM through a local partnership with Erbil-based Zagros TV.

“Unfortunately Zagros TV did not wish to renew the contract,” Shadadi says, explaining that the Kurdish service is now only available to listeners in the Kurdistan Region on shortwave.

Karina Fatishani, a Georgian Kurd living in Moscow and working as a producer and presenter for the past five years, is a trained pediatrician who has been active in civil society and media work since her college years and was driven to radio work through her interest in women’s issues.

“The problems and difficulties facing the Kurds and Kurdish women motivated me to get involved in media and social work. In 2008, I joined the Kurdish section of RUVR to make a small contribution to serving my nation,” she says.

Bayram Seker, a civil engineer by training and a presenter for RUVR’s thrice-weekly “Kurdish Panorama,” is from north Kurdistan but lives in Moscow. “We cover various news about Kurdish affairs that we gather from multiple sources and convey them to our listeners,” he says.

The RUVR Kurdish service broadcasts daily from 7-8pm Moscow time, re-broadcasting the same programs again at 11 the next morning.