Nazarbayev announced the transfer of the alphabet in Kazakhstan from Cyrillic to Latin
The President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev suggested the government to develop a timetable for the transition of Kazakh alphabet to Latin until the end of 2017.
This is stated in the article “Orientation: spiritual revival for the future”, which was published on the government portal of Kazakhstan.
According to the President, this is due to “political reasons”. To substantiate its position, Nazarbayev cited historical information about the use of different alphabets in the territory of modern Kazakhstan. He pointed out that the Kazakh alphabet has ancient roots — from the VI—VII centuries., when in Eurasia originated ancient türkic runic writing. This language later became the “lingua Franca” in large parts of the continent, he said.
Further Nazarbayev remembered that from X to XX century, after the adoption of Islam used the Arabic alphabet. Moreover, in 1929, the CEC of Kazakh SSR adopted a resolution on the implementation of “Uniform Turkic alphabet” based on Latin, the President added. The transition to the alphabet based on the Cyrillic characters took place only in 1940, Nazarbayev said.
The project will develop alphabet after discussion with the participation of scientists and experts in different fields. In the preparation of teaching materials and specialists should begin in 2018, said Nazarbayev. And by 2025, we need to translate all print books, business records, and periodicals in Latin alphabet, added the President of Kazakhstan.
The leader of Kazakhstan said that in the first time after the transition to the Latin alphabet will be used and the Cyrillic alphabet.