The alphabet issue of Turkestan Turks (1926-1990)

Abstract

The Turkestan Turks, whom we are connected by the same cultural sources, were under the rule of Russia in the last century. According to the Soviet “Politics of Nationalities”, the Turkish geographies were fragmented and subjected to physical assimilation. To completely exclude contact between them, the Arabic alphabet, which they had used for a thousand years, was banned, and they were subjected to cultural destruction. They were translated into Latin by a decision taken at the All-Union Turkological Congress in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Shortly thereafter, alphabet reform in Turkey worried the Soviet administration. In the 1940s, the discomfort felt at the same time began to be expressed. This time they introduced a different alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet, which was their main goal. The works of Marxist writers taught the Turkestans who wanted to be melted down in the Russian cauldron. They wanted with great effort to erase everything that belonged to the Turks. Scholars and intellectuals who opposed Soviet leader Stalin were repressed with arrests and exile in camps, which they called the Great Purge. In the end, both the history of the Turks and their ties with each other were severed. The Russian language as the dominant language has been introduced on a mandatory basis in all media and schools. The mode that is lacking with them; He completely isolated them from the world, depriving them of the right to religion and travel. The Turks outside of Turkey, who lived 70 years of open prison life in this way, were never aware of events, except for information provided outside the regime.

In this article, the geographical fragmentation of Turkestan Turks and the inner side of the alphabet changes to which it has been subjected are discussed. The main question to be asked here is the following: in addition to the Turks, there were also peoples such as Greek, Armenian, Georgian, German living in the Soviet geography. Why the political regime didn't touch their alphabets?