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Politics of Romanisation in Azerbaijan (1921–1992)
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Journal Article
Politics of Romanisation in Azerbaijan (1921–1992)
2010
Overview
Writing systems are used as, and considered to be,
important tools and symbols of political discourses
of their time. This article presents a historical
overview of the alphabet changes in Azerbaijan and
shows how the alphabets were associated with the
discourses of modernisation, nationalism and
national identity construction. In the early
twentieth century, the discussion on the need to
shift from the Arabic alphabet to the Roman was
actually an extension of the wider debate on
national identity and language coupled with the will
to modernise and progress. In 1940, the Soviet
regime imposed the shift from the Roman alphabet to
the Cyrillic in a top-down manner. This change was
neither negotiated nor discussed among the
intellectuals and there was almost no room for the
expression of critical views. With the introduction
of glasnost and perestroika in the late 1980s,
intellectuals started to question to what extent the
Cyrillic alphabet and the Russian language could
represent the Azerbaijani language, civilisation,
and national identity. In 1991, Azerbaijan adopted
the Roman alphabet. The case of Azerbaijan shows
that alphabet changes are symbolic acts to deny
and/or reject the previous political and cultural
heritage and its legitimacy and tools for
undermining its prominence in the new processes of
transformation and change.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Subject
