IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 88: excerpts
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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 88: excerpts
WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 88, 29 June 2001
ARMENIAN U-TURN ON DEATH PENALTY A thirst for revenge for the
assassination of the prime minister is set to overturn Armenia's
commitment to abolition of capital punishment. Jeanna Alexanian
reports from Yerevan
PROBING FOR THE RIGHT SPOT The recently-founded New Right Party joins
the race to become Georgia's political alternative. Jaba Devdariani
reports from Tbilisi
AZERI PAPERS 'THREATENED' BY LANGUAGE DECREE The Azeri media fear the
compulsory transition from Cyrillic to Latin letters will cost them
readers. Shahin Rzaev reports from Baku
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...................
AZERI PAPERS 'THREATENED' BY LANGUAGE DECREE
The Azeri media fear the compulsory transition from Cyrillic to Latin
letters will cost them readers
By Shahin Rzaev in Baku
The people of Azerbaijan will wake up on August 1 to find their
newspapers printed in a language many may struggle to understand.
The print media will no longer be published in Cyrillic but Latin -
one of the consequences of a language decree President Heidar Aliev
recently signed.
The reform was not unexpected, as a law on the transition to the Latin
script was adopted back in 1991. But little progress has been made
since then, and with the exception of 'Ayne' (The Mirror) and two
children newspapers, the press all continued using Cyrillic, not least
because most people over 30 remain unfamiliar with Latin letters.
Changes to the alphabet are not new to Azerbaijan. This is the fourth
alteration in a century. Before the Russian Revolution, Arabic was
generally employed. In the 1920s this gave way to Latin. Stalin then
imposed Cyrillic in the 1930s, which remained in use until the
collapse of Soviet Union.
Public opinion is generally hostile to the compulsory nature of the
change. 'At school I easily read books in Latin but I am against such
a swift transition,' said Ajdin Badalov, 50, a company manager. "The
business of reading will become strenuous and time-consuming. The
reform should be introduced gradually."
Pensioner Zeinab Khalilova agrees. "This is an insult to the elderly,'
she said. 'How can I start learning the new alphabet at 63? Pensioners
spend much of their time reading papers. Now we will be deprived of
that as well."
Many younger people sympathise with her plight. 'Reading Latin is no
problem for me,' said Shovgi Safarov, 31, "but you cannot force people
to give up something they have known for their whole life."
The stance of the politicians inevitably reflects the agendas of their
parties. The pro-government parties of the National Democratic bloc
mostly support the decree, while those in the opposition Union of
Pro-Azerbaijan Forces do not.
Sabir Rustamkhanli, chairman of the Civic Solidarity Party and a
former minister of press and information, says a swift transition will
be less painful in the long term. "Stalin changed the alphabet in one
day," he said. 'Ataturk, the first president of Turkish Republic, in
three months. We have been marking time for 10 years and without the
[presidential] decree, it would go on for another 10 years."
Sceptics complain that changing the alphabet ranks very low on the
list of country's priorities and is a waste of money. "We will need to
spend about $4 million to carry out this reform," said Araz Alizade,
one of the chairmen of the Social Democratic Party. "We would be
better off spending this money on the army. If adopting Latin is so
important, the transition period should be about 25 years, not one
month."
The Azerbaijani intelligentsia is as divided as the politicians,
although Baku university professor Shirmamed Huseinov claims the
change will open Azerbaijan to the world. "The newspapers may have
some difficulties but the number of foreign readers will increase," he
said. "Our schools have been using Latin-printed textbooks for several
years. This decision serves the interests of the young generation."
The poet Vakhid Azimov is less certain. 'People are always talking
about how Ataturk switched Turkey to the Latin alphabet in one year,"
he said. 'They forget that 80 per cent of Turkish population was
illiterate!"
Behind the arguments, a concensus is emerging that Cyrillic will
eventually give way to Latin. Most of the quarrels revolve around the
time, capital investment and measures that will be required to teach
the population the new alphabet.
But the print media is especially worried. It says it needs both time
and financial support from the government if it is not to suffer
unduly from the changeover. "The state must help the press solve this
problem," said Arif Aliev, president of the Baku Press Club. Gabil
Abbasoglu, editor of the country's most popular daily, Yeni Musavat,
wants the transition period extended and support for the print media
from the budget.
"The whole store of knowledge of my generation is based on books
printed in Cyrillic, as is that of the previous generation," said
Mamed Suleymanov, 30, editor of the newspaper 7 Dnej, (Seven Days).
'If I have difficulties reading my own newspaper, what can I expect
from the middle-aged people who form our core readers?"
Despite the widespread criticism, the language reform is underway. And
after August 1 Azerbaijan's press - inevitably - faces the prospect of
losing a portion of its readers. One consequence is that the
electronic media, which is more directly controlled by the
authorities, will become the main source of information for much of
the population.
Shahin Rzaev is a regular IWPR contributor
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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and
international community with unique insiders' perspective on the
Caucasus. Using our network of local journalists, the service
publishes objective news and analysis from across the region on a
weekly basis.
The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus Project which supports local
media development while encouraging better local and international
understanding of the region.
IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service is supported by the Regional Media
Fund of the Open Society Institute. The service is currently available
on the Web in English and in Russian. All IWPR's reporting services
including Balkan Crisis Reports, Reporting Central Asia and Tribunal
Update are available free of charge via e-mail subscription or direct
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To subscribe to any of the news services, e-mail IWPR at
[email protected].
For further details on this project and other information services and
media programmes, visit IWPR's Website: <www.iwpr.net>.
Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan;
Assistant Editor: Philip O'Neil; Commissioning Editor: Marina Rennau
in Tbilisi; Associate Editors: Ara Tadevosian in Yerevan, Shahin
Rzayev in Baku and Zarina Kanukova in Nalchik. Editorial assistance:
Mirna Jancic and Heather Milner. To comment on this service, contact
IWPR's Programme Director: Alan Davis [email protected]
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based
independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and
democratic change.
Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, United
Kingdom.Tel: (44 207) 713 7130; Fax: (44 207) 713 7140. E-mail:
[email protected]; Web: www.iwpr.net
The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those
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publication or of IWPR.
Copyright (c) IWPR 2001
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