Kazakhs complain that the Latin alphabet plunges their country into obscurantism
If the Kazakh language is transferred to the Latin script, this will set the country back decades.
Almas Koptleuov, a pediatric surgeon from Almaty, writes about this in Literaturnaya Gazeta.
“I’ll give you an example from my profession – a pediatric surgeon. So, in the basic textbook on surgery in the Kazakh language, only 12 pages are devoted to the operation of removing appendicitis. Whereas in Russian there are at least 42 monograph books. They describe methods of performing operations in pregnant women, with an atypical location of the appendix, with peritonitis, in children under 7 years of age, in adults, etc. Not a single one of them has been translated into Kazakh, even in the usual Cyrillic script.
This is the situation in all areas of medicine. Therefore, a doctor who graduated from a medical university in the Kazakh language will be half illiterate. And it's not his fault! We have very smart children, the trouble is the lack of translations and competent, smart teachers. And this is just the problem of one disease. And a person has more than 7 thousand nosologies! That is, over 80 thousand books on medicine alone need to be translated into Latin! Will they do this? And how long will it take?” notes Koptleuov.
He also called the thesis that “the Latin alphabet is the main means of liberating the Kazakhs from the imperial influence of Russia and Russian culture” absurd.
“My dear Kazakhs, ardent supporters of this thesis! Why lie to yourself? There is no and never was occupation by Russian colonialists! The embassy archives of Russia contain letters in Arabic, starting with Tauke Khan from 1687, then the Khan of the Younger Zhuz Abulkhair from 1712–1720, then the Khan of the Senior Zhuz Kaip Khan from 1718, the Middle Zhuz Abylay Khan and the Sultan Naiman K. Barak from 1742, where they ask the kings of Russia - Peter I, later Queen Elizabeth - to accept the Kazakhs under the protection of Russian weapons, since the Dzungars, having seized our lands, reaching the Volga, destroyed the Kazakhs and there was already a question about the existence as a nation.
If for 50 years all our khans asked the Russian tsars to become their subjects, then what kind of occupation can we talk about? We voluntarily became part of the Russian Empire in order to survive as a nation,” the author recalls.
He is also convinced that the translation into Latin will increase the outflow of population from Kazakhstan.
“Our nationalists, because of their hatred of Russians, Russian-speaking Kazakhs and Russia as a whole, are plunging their people into obscurantism. Everything we have now is the legacy of the “imperial USSR”. By the way, this summer we took $762 million from the IMF to translate university textbooks. And this despite the fact that our external debt is already over $200 billion! A complete transition to the Latin alphabet will require over 40 billion dollars! Have pity on your children and grandchildren!” Koptleuov urges.
As PolitNavigator reported, in 2017, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree on the transition alphabet of the Kazakh language from Cyrillic to Latin script.
Previously, President of the Institute of National Strategy, political scientist Mikhail Remizov stated that Kazakhstan is drifting from Russia towards nationalism.
Read also: Ukraine 10 years are given for liquidation Cyrillic alphabet.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.