The five member countries of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) have agreed on a common 34-letter Latin alphabet for their languages.

Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan finally settled on the alphabet after years of wrangling over letters and diacritical marks. Satisfying all demands was a tall order, with the Turkic language family made up of at least 35 documented languages.

Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan already use a Latin script, as does Kazakhstan, which is transitioning away from Cyrillic, but Kyrgyzstan has not made the switch to a Latin alphabet. Among the Kyrgyz, debate is still very much alive over the academic and cultural wisdom of doing so, not to mention the irritation it would cause in the Kremlin, wary of losing any more influence in Central Asia.

The agreed upon Latin alphabet (Credit: social media).

Radio Azattyk on October 3 cited Syrtbai Musaev, a linguist who represented Kyrgyzstan at an OTS meeting on the common alphabet in Baku on September 9-11, as saying that a draft Latin-based Kyrgyz alphabet "is ready" but awaits a "political decision" by the president and parliament.

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has stated that it would be premature for the country to abandon Cyrillic, which was imposed on the former Soviet republics by Moscow.

"It is too early to talk about the transition of the Kyrgyz language to the Latin alphabet," Japarov said. "This issue is not on the table now; the development of the state language should continue in Cyrillic."

Prior to Japarov’s remarks, chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s national commission on state language and language policy, Kanybek Osmonaliev, told the country’s legislature that if "the lawmakers and the president make the political decision [to replace Cyrillic], the Kyrgyz public and scholars are ready to transition to the Latin alphabet."

Musaev has put forward a version of the Latin-based Kyrgyz alphabet with 28 letters. It is based on an alphabet adapted by Kyrgyz linguist and politician Kasym Tynystanov and was used in Kyrgyzstan from 1927 to 1940. Musaev said that in his view it would fully preserve the phonemic structure of the Kyrgyz language.

There's no doubt that Russia would be unhappy to see Kyrgyzstan go down the Latin road. Many Russian politicians frequently comment in various media channels, warning of a further diminishing of Russia's role in the affairs of Central Asia. Moscow's difficulty is that it is so concentrated on its war in Ukraine, and running a war economy to support its efforts to overcome the West-backed Ukrainians, that rivals for influence in the Central Asian states, particularly China, but also including Turkey, Europe and the US, can exploit its distraction. The OTS is becoming increasingly active and important in Central Asian matters, though it is not so much Turkey, but China, that is making the big trade and investment gains with the five "Stans" at Russia's expense.

Debates among the Turkic states on formulating a common Latin alphabet began in the early 1990s. The push to do so gained momentum as Turkey saw an opportunity to develop closer ties with its fellow Turkic nations Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the post-Soviet era.

"Each letter in the proposed alphabet represents different phonemes found in Turkic languages," read a statement released during the Baku meeting.