CRIMEAN TATARS TO SWITCH TO LATIN SCRIPT.

The Crimean parliament has approved the gradual introduction by the year 2002 of the Latin alphabet for the Crimean-Tatar language instead of the Cyrillic script now used. The switch will be financed by the government of Turkey. (Itar-Tass, April 10) Crimean Tatars make up about 10 percent of the population of the peninsula. Ukrainian, Russian, and Crimean Tatar are all recognized as state languages in Crimea, but the lack of schools and teaching materials in the Crimean Tatar language has given rise to complaints of discrimination from the Tatar community. Crimea’s move may give a fresh boost to the campaign in Tatarstan for Tatar to abandon Cyrillic for the Latin alphabet.

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