Languages of Turkey

Languages of Turkey
OfficialTurkish
RecognisedArmenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Hebrew
MinorityKurdish (Kurmanji), Zazaki, Azerbaijani, Arabic, Neo-Aramaic and Classical Syriac, Pomak Bulgarian, Balkan Gagauz Turkish, Laz, Georgian, Megleno-Romanian, Pontic Greek, Judaeo-Spanish
ImmigrantAdyghe, Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Crimean Tatar, Kabardian[1] (in alphabetical order)
ForeignEnglish (17%)
German (4%)
Arabic (2%)
French (1%)[2]
SignedTurkish Sign Language
Mardin Sign Language
Keyboard layout

The languages of Turkey, apart from the official language Turkish, include the widespread Kurdish (Kurmanji), Zazaki, and Arabic, and a number of less common minority languages. Four minority languages are officially recognized in the Republic of Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the Turkey-Bulgaria Friendship Treaty (Türkiye ve Bulgaristan Arasındaki Dostluk Antlaşması) of 18 October 1925: Armenian,[3][4][5] Bulgarian,[6][7][8][3] Greek,[3][9][10] and Hebrew.[11][12] In 2013, the Ankara 13th Circuit Administrative Court ruled that the minority provisions of the Lausanne Treaty should also apply to Assyrians in Turkey and the Syriac language.[13][14][15]

  1. ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld - World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Turkey".
  2. ^ Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (February 2006). "Europeans and their languages Special Eurobarometer 243". Publications Office of the European Union. pp. 152–154.
  3. ^ a b c Bayır 2013, pp. 88–90, 203–204.
  4. ^ Questions and Answers: Freedom of Expression and Language Rights in Turkey. New York: Human Rights Watch. April 2002. The Turkish government accepts the language rights of the Jewish, Greek and Armenian minorities as being guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.
  5. ^ Uzum, Melike; Demir, Nurettin (2017-10-24). "Minority Language Education and Policy in Turkey: The Case of Cankiri Poshas". Journal of Universality of Global Education Issues. 4: 5–6. ISSN 2575-9388. In the Lausanne treaty, people of the republic were defined through a religion based definition, similar to the Ottoman concept of millet (nation). For example, the non-Muslim minorities such as Armenians, Greeks, and Jews were recognized as minorities, and their language rights were identified in articles 39, 40, and 41.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Toktaş2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Köksal2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Özlem2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Toktaş, Şule (2006). "EU enlargement conditions and minority protection : a reflection on Turkey's non-Muslim minorities". East European Quarterly. 40 (4): 489–519. ISSN 0012-8449. p. 514: This implies that Turkey grants educational right in minority languages only to the recognized minorities covered by the Lausanne who are the Armenians, Greeks and the Jews.
  10. ^ Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2013). "A Surviving Treaty: The Lausanne Minority Protection in Greece and Turkey". In Henrard, Kristin (ed.). The Interrelation between the Right to Identity of Minorities and their Socio-economic Participation. Leiden and Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 287–288. ISBN 9789004244740.
  11. ^ Yağmur, Kutlay (2001), Extra, G.; Gorter, D. (eds.), "Turkish and other languages in Turkey", The Other Languages of Europe, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 407–427, ISBN 978-1-85359-510-3, retrieved 2023-10-06, "Mother tongue" education is mostly limited to Turkish teaching in Turkey. No other language can be taught as a mother tongue other than Armenian, Greek, and Hebrew, as agreed in the Lausanne Treaty [...] Like Jews and Greeks, Armenians enjoy the privilege of an officially recognized minority status. [...] No language other than Turkish can be taught at schools or at cultural centers. Only Armenian, Greek, and Hebrew are exceptions to this constitutional rule.
  12. ^ Zetler, Reyhan (2014). "Turkish Jews between 1923 and 1933 – What Did the Turkish Policy between 1923 and 1933 Mean for the Turkish Jews?" (PDF). Bulletin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Judaistische Forschung (23): 26 (PDF p. 14/28). OCLC 865002828.
  13. ^ Ankara 13th Circuit Administrative Court, 18 June 2013 (E. 2012/1746, K. 2013/952).
  14. ^ Akbulut, Olgun (2023-10-19). "For Centenary of the Lausanne Treaty: Re-Interpretation and Re-Implementation of Linguistic Minority Rights of Lausanne". International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. -1 (aop): 1–24. doi:10.1163/15718115-bja10134. ISSN 1385-4879.
  15. ^ Erdem, Fazıl Hüsnü; Öngüç, Bahar (2021-06-30). "SÜRYANİCE ANADİLİNDE EĞİTİM HAKKI: SORUNLAR VE ÇÖZÜM ÖNERİLERİ". Dicle Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi (in Turkish). 26 (44): 3–35. ISSN 1300-2929.

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