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Untitled Document
Russia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday began the
hearings requested by the State Council and Supreme Court of the Republic of
Tatarstan that declare for the restoration of the Latin alphabet as the graphic
basis of the Tatar language. It will take the court several weeks to arrive
at the decision, but the participants in the hearings, except for the applicants,
were united in the opinion that the stand of Tatarstan’s representatives
does not agree with the Russian Constitution.
The Constitution and the law on the languages of the peoples
of the Russian Federation permit each people within the Federation to choose
its state language. However, it is only a federal bill that can determine the
graphic basis of a language, Mikhail Mityukov, the Russian president’s
envoy, said in the court “The transition to a different alphabet is possible,
but this requires adopting a new federal bill that must take into account the
interests of all Russian citizens”, he said.
The fact that these interests are not taken into consideration
by the authors of the reform is seen from the letter of more than 30 people
from among ethnic Tatars who are prominent in culture, sports, and science in
the Russian Federation. Their letter was published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta. They
ask questions as to who, when and on what funds will be retraining in the use
of the Latin alphabet all the Tatars living outside the republic, who make up
80 percent of Russia’s Tatars.
Yelena Mizulina, representative of the State Duma lower house
of parliament in the Constitutional Court, assessing the debate between those
who are for the Cyrillic alphabet and those who are for the Latin one from the
juridical viewpoint, said this is an invented problem. The law on the languages
of the peoples of Russia, questioned by Tatarstan’s representatives, that
establishes the Cyrillic alphabet as the graphic basis of the language is fully
in keeping with the Constitution as it aims at preserving the cultural, economic
and, in the long run, territorial integrity of the country, Mizulina holds.
This has been recognized indirectly even by the authors of
the request. The case heard by the Constitutional Court is “the echo of
the early 90s when the republics were striving to take as much sovereignty as
possible”, Farid Mukhametshin, the head of the State Council of Tatarstan,
said. Still, he said that the use of either the Latin alphabet or the Cyrillic
one, in the Tatar language has both advantages and drawbacks.
Having heard the opinions of the sides, the court will concentrate
on drawing up the decision
Source Itar
Tass
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