YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. IRI Embassy in RA has initiated to publish the Koran in Armenian by 2006 March 21. As Reza Atufi, Director of Embassy's Cultural Center, informed in his interview to Noyan Tapan correspondent, the Koran that has been translated only by parts by now, will be presented to the Armenian reader for the first time. "The translation of Holy Writs is a difficult thing but we succeeded in overcoming these difficulties. We have tried to keep to the text of the Koran word by word but there are some parts which don't correspond to the Armenian language: we have changed them for the Armenian reader to understand the content of the Koran better," R.Atufi mentioned. According to Eduard Hakhverdian, Koran translator, some translated parts of Koran have been published by separate books. "We had an apprehension that the translation won't be perfect but the Koranological Center, studying the translation, approved it," the translator mentioned. The whole Koran consists of 30 chapters, 114 surahs with more than 6 ayats (commandments). According to E.Hakhverdian, the Bible events are mainly repeated in Koran, connected with Noah, St Mary, Jesus Christ, different prophets. "These are almost the same stories with slight changes." E.Hakhverdian mentioned that the translation of the Koran is important especially from cognitive point of view as the Koran, according to him, not only propagates moral philosophy but can be also considered a code.

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