Alirza Quluncu, Voice of America, July 31, 2013
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| Toğrul Atabay |
Recently, in response to the insults directed at Azerbaijani Turkish in a well-known Iranian magazine, Southern Azerbaijani Turkologist and writer Toğrul Atabay spoke to Voice of America, discussing the history of the Turkish language and literature, the situation and development of Turkish in Iranian Azerbaijan, and the necessary steps to create a modern language in the South. According to him, the regular insults to Azerbaijani Turkish in the Iranian press are part of the government’s discriminatory policies towards Azerbaijanis.
The article in Mehrname magazine, filled with phrases like "All works written in Azeri language could be taught in two semesters to Pan-Turkists," targets Azerbaijani Turks who demand education in their native language. The Southern researcher believes that the use of the distorted terms "Azeri" and "Pan-Turkist" by Mehrname magazine aims to confuse public opinion and belittle Azerbaijani Turks.
“There is no such thing as the Azeri language. There is Turkish. Moreover, Turkish is not limited to Tabriz and its surroundings. If Turkish is confined to Southern Azerbaijan, then works created in Persian outside of Iran, such as those from Balkh and Samarkand, should not be considered Persian either. Only works produced in Persian cities should be counted,” said the author of the Manqurt story collection.
Referring to the Turkish literary works created during the 7th-8th centuries and the period of the Khwarezmian State, the expert on Ottoman and Azerbaijani literature history emphasized that Turkish literature has a long history:
“In Iran, due to the policies pursued in favor of Persianism and Shiism, Turkish has been brought to a catastrophic state. In Northern Azerbaijan as well, just like during the Soviet era, the language has been neglected and turned into a local dialect.”
He also noted that, alongside the rise of national consciousness in South Azerbaijan, there are positive activities towards creating a modern and scientific language. "It is impossible to create miracles during a time of assimilation... For now, we can use the advanced Turkish spoken in Turkey to create our scientific language... Since there are no government or other supporting institutions at present, this task falls on the intellectuals,” he said, emphasizing the need for a lot of work to develop the written language in the South.
A Southern researcher who studied Turkish language and literature and Old Turkish at Istanbul and Marmara Universities believes that it is important not to shy away from discussing the problems and shortcomings of the Turkish spoken in Azerbaijan. “If we do not address the problems, we will accept the disastrous situation of our language and will not be able to overcome the deficiencies,” he said.
“Turkish is a language with immense internal strength and potential. Therefore, there is no need to feel inferior. However, we must work to turn that potential strength into functionality,” added the Azerbaijani Turkologist working in Turkey’s language institutes.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Toğrul Atabay: "Azəri" dili yoxdur, Türk dili var!