KAYSERIA (Anatolia News Agency)–Turkey’s Erciyes University is set to launch Armenian and Hebrew language departments, the university’s deputy rector said Wednesday.
The university in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri received permission from the Board of Higher Education (YoK) to launch an Armenian and Hebrew language departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said professor Metin Hulagu.
“These two departments will accept 60 students, 30 for each [language], for next year. [A] booklet will include information concerning students’ acceptance,” Hulagu said.
The university, however, was experiencing difficulty finding professors and lecturers for the departments, Hulagu said.
“We only have one lecturer for Armenian and one for Hebrew on the permanent staff, which is not enough. So, we talked to the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey but we got no result. We were lucky in our talks with the Armenian State University. They will send us two professors,” Hulagu said.
“For the Hebrew language department, a professor who lives in Greece will join our university. We will also hire professors from Israel,” he said.
With the 60 new students arriving for the new academic year, Erciyes will work together with universities in Armenia and Israel and plans student exchange programs with institutions in those countries.
Hulag said students studying Armenian or Hebrew will easily find work after graduation since there are few in Turkey who have a mastery of either language.
The university is also working to launch departments for Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Persian.
A Cabinet decision in December allowed for the first time academic work to be conducted in Kurdish as well.
It may be a little step forward,a minute step.Armenian is a rich melodous language.like Italian,good for the ears;whereas turkish is a harsh guttural tone,like you would hear in a pig pen,oink,oink.