1000 Qurans in Armenian donated to the Patriarchate
The owners Bilgi Merkezi Research and Publishing (BMAR) Murat Rumevleklioğlu and Murat Biçer and translator retired lieutenant colonel Yavuz Aydın visited the General Vicar of Armenian Patriarch Aram Ateşyan. During this visit, the owners of the publishing house donated 1000 Qurans in Armenian (500 in Eastern and 500 in Western Armenian) which Yavuz Aydın translated by using the Turkish translations of Quran by Muhammed Hamdi Yazır and the Directorate of Religious Affairs as references.
Ateşyan: An Armenian translation of Quran is missing
Expressing his appreciation for this visit, Ateşyan thanked BMAR and translator Aydın. The General Vicar of Armenian Patriarch said, “We cannot tell whether a tradition belong to Armenian, Turkish, Greek or Jewish culture. Dolma and coffee for instance, they belong to all of us. We order Armenian coffee in Armenia, Turkish coffee here and when we are in Greece, it becomes Greek coffee. This indicates that we have common values. However, it is about time to share our religious cultures too. Given that three Abrahamic religions coexisted in the same place, a Greek or a Jew or an Armenian who cannot speak Turkish should be able to read Quran and understand that tradition. They have to appreciate the valuable expressions in Quran. They have to know Prophet Muhammad. Bible was translated in every language and every society reads it. They read Bible and learn about Jesus, but Quran has been staying distant.”
Pointing out that there was no translation of Quran available to Armenians, Ateşyan said, “Quran in Armenian was missing. There were some translations before, but they were not good enough. And during the preparation of this translation, some difficulties also occurred. We don’t like the first translation. The expressions were weak; religious terms are so different that you cannot find them in daily conversations, you have to come up with them. I believe that the editing process made this translation better. I will send a copy to all churches. All administrators will have it. And if people demand, I will give copies to them as gift.”
The owner of the publishing house: “Against Islamophobia”
Thanking Ateşyan for his remarks, Murat Rumevleklioğlu said, “I am grateful for his clemency. I wish these two societies that have been living together for years will continue to live together for ages with more harmony and love for each other by sharing their common cultural heritage.”
After the visit, Murat Rumevleklioğlu and translator Yavuz Aydın spoke to Anadolu Agency. Rumevleklioğlu pointed out that this translation is the result of a meticulous work that lasted for 4 years without any outside support.
Rumevleklioğlu stated that they spared one year for making corrections and they consulted Armenian language experts along with Yavuz Aydın and the Directorate of Religious Affair and he added: “Fortunately, precious scholars from the Directorate of Religious Affairs made some contributions. Our purpose is to give this translation firstly to our citizen Armenians and then to all the Armenians in the world with the light of this saying of Prophet Muhammad: ‘Indeed, there is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, nor of a non-Arab over an Arab, except by taqwa (piety and good action).’ Thus, we will have performed our duty of informing.”
Rumevleklioğlu said, “There are several works that were carried in 1911, 1915 and 2007, but there is no translation that an Armenian can read, even in the Patriarchate. Now, we gave them a copy. Our purpose is to tell the beauty of Islam to Armenians in their own language, given that Islamophobia is rising in the world now.”
Rumevleklioğlu said that they published 5000 copies and they want to publish total of 300.000 copies if they get support for their project.
The translator: “I added no interpretation”
Translator Yavuz Aydın said, “We saw that there is no Quran in Armenian for our citizen Armenians to read. So, we started working on it. We want Armenians to read Islam from its original and accurate source.”
Aydın also added: “First of all, I examined the translations of Quran and I decided that the work of Hamdi Yazır is the one that is truest to the original. We used his work as the reference. Contemporary translation theories advise to add some interpretation, but we tried to avoid this, since this is a holy text, it is the word of God. We tried to convey what we see in the Turkish translation.”
