Southeastern university starts Syriac courses

MARDİN - Doğan News Agency / Thursday, July 7, 2011

Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz attended the first lesson of Syriac language courses started by Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin. DHA photo

Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz attended the first lesson of Syriac language courses started by Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin. DHA photo

Already providing Kurdish-language education, Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin, or MAU, is readying to open an intensive course on the Syriac language.

The courses will be provided by the university’s Living Languages Institute. Also, a committee from the faculty of letters is working on establishing a Syriac Language and Culture Department.

MAU is also the first university to start academic education on Kurdish Language and Literature.

“The Syriac language courses of the university have received a keen interest from all corners of the country,” according to the Deputy Rector and the Head of the Living Languages Institute Kadri Yıldırım who said during his attendance at the first lesson of the course that they would also initiate efforts to start a post-graduate program with a Syriac Language and Culture Department in September.

Yıldırım was accompanied by some 27 students as well as MAU Rector Serdar Bedii Omay and Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz at the first course.

“We have made another dream come true. This is a very important progression to overcome the fear, pressure and oblivion which have been continuing for two centuries. Just like the Aramaic courses at Nusaybin Academy and establishing the Kurdish Language and Literature Department, Syriac course will make a great contribution to cultural life in Turkey and the world.

The intensive course will last a month and give basic education of Syriac language, alphabet and grammar.

Professor Abdulmesih Saadi, also an academic at the University of Notre Dame in the United States, is considered as the head of the Syriac Language and Culture Department.

Caption: Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz attended the first lesson of Syriac language courses started by Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin.