Russian Tatars not allowed to use Latin alphabet

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

MOSCOWRussia's highest court has judged that Tatars living in the federal state of Tatarstan may not apply the Latin alphabet to their language without permission from the federal government in Moscow. The Tatars had instituted legal proceedings because their Turkic language differs greatly from Russian, the BBC reports.

The law banning all alphabets but Cyrillic has been one in a long range of regulations and restrictions, claimed by officials to be designed to protect Russia's linguistic heritage. The Russian federal government has been cited to consider the use of a non-Cyrillic alphabet by federal states a 'separatist tendency'.


Sources