The Alphabet Issue at the First Turkological Congress

Abstract

Almost it was known to all delegates in advance that the main issue to be discussed at the First Turkological Congress was precisely the issue of alphabet, that is, the issue of which alphabet the Turkic peoples would adopt: the Arabic alphabet (the traditional version) would be abandoned, and a new alphabet based on the Latin alphabet would be adopted. One of the reasons for holding the Congress in Baku was that the new alphabet was already being developed without any hesitation in Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and the North Caucasus.

Since the adoption of the old Arabic alphabet in its traditional (classical) version was impossible in principle, Kazakh and Kazan Tatar intellectuals (A.Baitursun, G.Ibrahimov, G.Sharaf, etc.) acted as supporters of its reform by showing complete distrust of the new Latin alphabet. The discussions led to the conclusion that this distrust of the reformers was unfounded, first of all, because none of the "options" they proposed was more or less satisfactory. And this flaw was also acknowledged by Russian-Soviet specialists.

The congress approved the transition to the new Latin alphabet by overwhelmingly support, which was a demand of history.