Can the North Caucasian diaspora in Turkey grasp an opportunity to revive their historic languages?
By Zeynel Besleney in Istanbul (CRS No. 225, 01-Apr-04) New legislation in Turkey is opening the way for a possible renaissance of the Circassian and Abkhaz languages, spoken by the descendants of exiles from the North Caucasus. But leading members of the diaspora community fear that it may be too late to revive widespread use of their mother tongues. As Turkey pursues membership of the European Union, new regulations came into force last November allowing for long neglected minority languages, such as Kurdish, Circassian, Abkhaz and Laz, to be taught in private institutions. Teaching of all of them had been banned since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. In fact, many associations of Circassians and Abkhaz (in Turkey they are all generally called Cerkez Cherkess or Circassian) had already been running language courses without official permission and were tolerated by the authorities. The problem was these courses were of poor quality and usually taken by untrained teacher
