ALPHABET REFORM IN AZERBAIJAN AND THE NEWSPAPER “YENI YOL”

Abstract

During the Soviet period, alphabet reform evolved into a comprehensive cultural modernization movement. Yeni Yol, launched in 1922, became the main press platform promoting the adoption and dissemination of the Latin alphabet. Articles and letters from Turkey, Moscow, Georgia, Central Asian republics, as well asCrimean and Kazan Tatars strengthened the newspaper’s integrative cultural role among Turkic-speaking communities. 
The reform of the alphabet played a key part in preserving Turkic peoples’ national identity and expressing their cultural modernization. Although presented as a “Cultural Revolution in the East,” Latinization in fact created a shared alphabet and a broad communicative space across the Turkic world. Yeni Yol significantly contributed to this unity both in Azerbaijan and beyond. The Soviet decision in 1939 to abolish the Latin script and impose Cyrillic aimed to weaken national cohesion; one of its first targets was the closure of Yeni Yol, the leading tribune of the alphabet reform.