Astana, Kazakhstan, Jan.30
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
The transition to the Latin script in Kazakhstan will start no earlier than 2025, the country's Minister of Culture and Sport Arystanbek Mukhamediuly said.
He made the remarks during a briefing in Astana on Jan.30.
"Currently this issue is being thoroughly studied," he said. "I believe there is no need to speed up this process in order to prevent the negative impact on our activity."
The minister reminded that the process of working out the curricula and classbooks will take a long time.
It was earlier reported that Kazakhstan's then Minister of Culture Mukhtar Kul-Muhammed said in 2011 that the transition to the Latin script is a matter of time for the country.
Previously, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed the government to start the preparatory work on the transition to Latin script by 2025.
The head of state said that thanks to the new script, Kazakh language will become the modern information language.
"The task of transition to the Latin script caused a resonance among our foreign partners," said Nazarbayev.
"Some regarded this as a proof of changes in Kazakhstan's geopolitical preferences. Nothing like that! This is the domestic demand for the development and modernization of the Kazakh language," Nazarbayev said. "No need to look for a black cat in a dark room."
The linguistic debates in Kazakhstan have been going on for 20 years. Over this period, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Moldova gave up the Cyrillic alphabet and adopted Latin letters.
Edited by SI