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
Part of a series on the
Culture of Turkey
History
People
Languages
Mythology and folklore
Cuisine
Festivals
Religion
Art
Literature
Music and performing arts
Media
Sport
Monuments
Symbols

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.