The virtual border between Turkey and Armenia will be crossed by literature, following in the footsteps of protocols signed last month between the two countries to re-establish diplomatic relations, thanks to the efforts of Armenian publishers.

A number of Armenian publishers submitted applications to their Turkish peers to get the oeuvres of 15 well-known Turkish poets translated into Armenian as part of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism's long-running Translation Subvention Project (TEDA). Among the poets whose work will be translated are Naz'm Hikmet, Cahit S“tk” Taranc,“Orhan Veli Kan“k, Oktay Rifat, Melih Cevdet Anday, Attila „lhan, Necip Faz“l K„sak“rek and Metin Alt”ok, among others.

A group of literary translators comprising lecturers from Yerevan State University will translate the works into Armenian for publication by the publishing house Amaras. The poetry leg of the project, initiated by the Armenian Publishers Association and expected to be completed in 2010, will be followed by the translation of selected short stories and novels by Turkish writers, Ministry of Culture and Tourism officials say. The ministry will lend support to the project in both translation and publishing. Around 30 Turkish literary works have been translated into Greek, 35 into Bulgarian and 10 into Arabic, in addition to the dozens of titles translated into other major languages such as English and German, as part of TEDA, which was launched in 2005.