A Bible translation project considered so sensitive it was only known by its initial, has been promoted by Turkish state television. 

For decades state restrictions on the language spoken by 80 per cent of Turkey’s Kurdish people, banned its use in the media. So from1994 to 2005 translation and production of the Kurdish Bible was shrouded in secrecy and all files covertly labelled ‘K project’.

Despite the secrecy, Bible Society’s decision to make the Kurdish Bible a priority project was itself a brave one. Conflict between Government forces and separatist PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) guerillas claimed thousands of lives during the 1980s and 90s.

From 2003 onwards, though, with the PKK leader captured and Turkey seeking to improve its human rights, restrictions on Turkey’s 15 million Kurdish people are gradually being eased.

And when a newly launched state Kurdish television channel, TRT6, called Bible Society in Turkey recently, its once secret Bible translation was celebrated as a cultural milestone.

Tamar Karasu (pictured), Bible Society in Turkey’s General Secretary, was amazed when the channel’s weekly book programme ran its feature on the New Testament and reported how the Old Testament would also be ready soon.

It was ‘incredible’, Tamar said. ‘We couldn’t have had an advertisement like that if we had paid $100,000.

‘When we look back to the time when we began translating and compare those days to today, we praise God,’ Tamar says.

Now Tamar has high hopes for a Faith Comes By Hearing audio recording of the New Testament in Kurdish, released in March. ‘Our goal is to reach thousands of Kurds who speak the language but have never learned to read it,’ she said.