Kazakhstan is Switching its Alphabet

By: Michael Moran

In October 2017, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev issued Decree No. 569 ordering the country to transition from a Cyrillic- to a Latin-based alphabet by 2025.[1] Since the president’s decree, a Latinized version of Kazakh writing has gradually started appearing on government buildings, street signs, and in government-funded newspapers and media.[2]

There are several possible explanations for why Kazakhstan abandoned its Cyrillic alphabet. Perhaps the foremost explanation is economic. Kazakhstan, a large, landlocked country in central Asia, has experienced significant economic growth and investment in the decades since its independence after the fall of the Soviet Union.  Much of this boom can be attributed to its “vast hydrocarbon and mineral reserves.”[3] Under the leadership of its former authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev,[4] the country “has promoted market reforms and attracted $200 billion in foreign direct investment, turning this steppe nation of 17 million into the second-largest economy in the former Soviet Union and No. 2 post-Soviet oil producer after Russia.”[5] Besides its strong economic ties to Russia, Kazakhstan has also fostered trade relationships with neighboring China in conjunction with China’s large scale infrastructure investments across Asia.[6] 

Kazakhstan is therefore situated in a complex economic and geopolitical position as it attempts to garner foreign investment and assert post-Soviet independence while still staying on Russia’s good side. In theory, moving towards a Latin alphabet allows for an efficient, convenient writing system consisting of the basic QWERTY symbols that would be available on any computer.[7] Leaders hope that this change will nudge Kazakhstan closer to the global intellectual community and help adapt it to “to the needs of modern information technology.[8]”

Another possible reason for Kazakhstan moving away from Cyrillic is to further assert Kazakhstan’s independence. Kazakhstan has experienced major demographic change since it left the Soviet Union in 1991 and changing its alphabet may be another subtle way of signaling its distinct Kazakh identity. The Soviet agricultural “Virgin Lands” program resulted in an influx of mostly Russian settlers to Kazakhstan during the 1950s and 1960s.[9] As a result of this migration, ethnic Kazakhs were a minority at its independence.[10] Since that time, however, “non-Muslim ethnic minorities departed Kazakhstan in large numbers from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s and a national program has repatriated about a million ethnic Kazakhs back to Kazakhstan.”[11] Although ethnic Russians still compose roughly 20% of Kazakhstan’s population, Kazakhs now constitute over two-thirds.[12]

The Kazakh language, without an alphabet of its own, “has always used scripts imported from outside.”[13] Originally Kazakhs used Arabic, the script of the language of Islam, as most Kazakhs were traditionally nominally-practicing Muslims.[14]  Kazakhstan adopted a Latin alphabet around the turn of the twentieth century as Russia’s Communist leaders initially supported the change after the 1917 revolution.[15] In the late 1930s, however, Stalin became increasingly fearful of pan-Turkic solidarity emerging among Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and other Turkic groups in the Soviet Union as a threat to his power.[16] In response, the Soviet government mandated that Kazakh and other Turkic languages adopt a modified Cyrillic script in order to promote Russian culture hegemony.[17]

Although Kazakhstan is one of the final former-Soviet Turkic nations to transition to a Latin alphabet,[18] this development would be consistent with other recent actions the country has taken intended to reassert national independence such as moving its capital city from Almaty to Nur-Sultan.[19]

The transition will come at a significant expense to the country, with President Nazarbayev and the state budgeting over $665 million to accomplish it.[20]  Its implementation has not come without some hiccups, either.  Facing opposition and criticism for the first version of the Latin alphabet, President Nazarbayev responded by issuing another decree in 2018 with another modified version of Kazakhstan’s Latin alphabet.[21] The president has a wide latitude to make these sorts of changes by decree. The Kazakhstan constitution states that the President “on the basis of and for the exercise of the Constitution and the laws, shall issue decrees and resolutions which are binding on the entire territory of the Republic.”[22]

It has been reported that the country may not be on track to meet its goal of replacing the Cyrillic alphabet by 2025.[23] Despite a possible delay, Kazakhstan’s move towards a Latin alphabet illustrates the strong role that language can play in integrating into a globalizing world economy and asserting national independence.

#Kazakhstan #MichaelMoran #InternationalLaw #BlogPost

[1] Presidential Decree No. 569, Oct. 26, 2017 (Kazakhstan).

[2] Almaz Kumenov, Kazakhstan: Latin Switchover to be Delayed?, Eurasianet.org (Jul. 17, 2019), https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstan-latin-switchover-to-be-delayed.

[3] CIA, The World Factbook: Kazakhstan (last visited Feb. 15, 2020), https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kz.html. [hereinafter Factbook]

[4] Following his reelection in 2015, President Nazarbayev apologized for winning reelection with 97.7% of the vote, saying that “it would have ‘looked undemocratic’ for him to intervene to make his victory more modest.” Raushan Nurshayeva, Kazakh Leader Apologizes for 97.7 Percent Re-election Victory, Reuters (Apr. 27, 2015) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kazakhstan-election-results/kazakh-leader-apologizes-for-97-7-percent-re-election-victory-idUSKBN0NI09220150427.

[5] Nurshayeva, supra note 4.

[6] See, e.g., Andrew Higgins, China’s Ambitious New ‘Port:’ Landlocked Kazakhstan, N.Y. Times (Jan. 1, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/world/asia/china-kazakhstan-silk-road.html.

[7] Almaz Kumenov, Kazakhstan: Latin Switchover to be Delayed?, Eurasianet.org (Jul. 17, 2019), https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstan-latin-switchover-to-be-delayed.

[8] Id.

[9] Factbook, supra note 3.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Andrew Higgins, Kazakhstan Cheers New Alphabet, Except for All Those Apostrophes, N.Y. Times (Jan. 15, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/world/asia/kazakhstan-alphabet-nursultan-nazarbayev.html.

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Okan Bahtiyar, Latinisation of the Kazakh Alphabet, New Eastern Europe (Dec. 3, 2019).

[19] AP, Kazakhstan Renames Capital Nur-Sultan, The Guardian (Mar. 23,2019), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/23/kazakhstan-renames-capital-nur-sultan.

[20] Nazrin Gadimova, Kazakhstanis Awaiting for New Latin-Based Alphabet, Caspian News (Jan. 14, 2020), https://caspiannews.com/news-detail/kazakhstanis-awaiting-for-new-latin-based-alphabet-2020-1-13-31/.

[21] Alistair Coleman, Kazakhstan Changes its Alphabet – Again, BBC (Feb. 20, 2018), https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-43126818.

[22] The Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan Aug. 30, 1995, art. 45(1).

[23] Kumenov, supra note 2.