Languages of Turkey

A joint commission within the Organization of Turkic States (TDT) has reached an agreement on the adoption of a common alphabet consisting of 34 letters.

The decision came after the commission's third meeting, held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku between Sept. 9 and 11, with contributions from the Turkish Language Association (TDK).

Romeyka descended from ancient Greek but may die out as it has no written form and is spoken by only a few thousand people

It has no writing system but it is spoken, mainly by elderly Muslim women in the Trabzon (Trebizond, historically) region in northern Turkey by a population that ranges between 4,000 and 8,000 people, according to estimates. It has archaic structures and forms, like infinitives and negation, that testify to its roots in Hellenistic Greek.

In Sunny Beach, Ukrainians organized a procession to thank hoteliers, volunteers and all the people who participated with help for refugees from Ukraine.

Thousands chanted "thank you" for the support given to their compatriots. According to Ukrainian Alexandra, the procession is intended to show gratitude for Bulgarian hospitality.

An 85-year-old Bulgarian man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison and a €53,000 fine for trafficking migrants into Greece. The absurdity of this case is that the man never set foot in our southern neighbor. The man was accused of transporting refugees in a truck he bought in Sweden.

Turkey's first Armenian museum has been established in Vakıflı, an Armenian village in the Samandağ district of the southern province of Hatay.
In the museum, different cultures are also presented besides the Armenian culture.

A group of Turkish academics have launched a project to create an alphabet for the whistled language, which is spoken in northern Turkey's Black Sea region.

A trailer for an EU-backed project reveals just how distant Turkish speakers are from the Armenian, Greek, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and Syriac languages native to the country.

Turkey has extradited two Russian spies in exchange for two Crimean Tatar politicians jailed in Russia, daily Habertürk reported on Nov. 29.

Turkish students will be introduced to the letters "w," "x" and "q," which are not in the Turkish alphabet, starting from the fourth grade as part of a lesson teaching children how to use computer keyboards.