Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency plans to begin reporting news in Kurdish later this year, the agency's director has said.

Anatolia news agency General Director Kemal Öztürk said during an interview with the Star daily on Saturday that the 93-year-old state news service is currently publishing in English, Arabic, Russian and Bosnian in addition to Turkish and that it will add Kurdish to its services on Sept. 1 of this year.

Öztürk said the primary purpose of reporting in Kurdish is reaching out the northern Iraqi media. The agency already has an office in Arbil, the regional capital of the Iraqi Kurdish region.

Öztürk added that the agency plans to increase the number of languages in which Anatolia offers reporting to 11 by 2020.

Anatolia's move to begin reporting in Kurdish comes amidst the Turkish government's efforts to end the Kurdish conflict. Back in 2009, state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) launched Kurdish channel TRT 6, or TRT Şeş, as part of government's initiative to solve the Kurdish issue through peaceful means.

Today's Zaman