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Today's Zaman, Turkey
Oct 2 2011
Turkish emerges as candidate for official UN language
02 October 2011, Sunday / TODAY'S ZAMAN , Ä°STANBUL
Turkish has once again emerged as a candidate language for recognition
as the seventh official language of the UN, a costly and lengthy
process if Turkic speaking countries decide to push for their language
to be added to the organization's six official languages.
The issue was brought up during a meeting between Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on
the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York two weeks ago,
the Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.
`Recognition of official languages is an issue UN member countries can
decide on,' Ban was quoted by Anatolia as saying in response to
ErdoÄ?an's request to the UN to recognize Turkish as an official UN
language.
The UN currently has six official languages, namely Arabic, Chinese,
English, French, Russian and Spanish. It is, however, very costly and
difficult to add a new language to the list. When Arabic became an
official language, Anatolia noted, Arabic-speaking countries had to
pay three years' worth of translation costs in order to use Arabic as
a working and official language at the UN.
So far, Bengali, Indian and Portuguese have been discussed as
candidates for the seventh language, but no solid development has
surfaced regarding the process. Turkish is also noted to be at a
disadvantage since the language is spoken only in Turkey.
On the other hand, Turkish is a part of the Turkic language family,
the members of which are spoken in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan among the member countries. The
UN receives constant criticism for using mainly English, while other
languages usually end up being ignored in the translation process.
Oct 2 2011
Turkish emerges as candidate for official UN language
02 October 2011, Sunday / TODAY'S ZAMAN , Ä°STANBUL
Turkish has once again emerged as a candidate language for recognition
as the seventh official language of the UN, a costly and lengthy
process if Turkic speaking countries decide to push for their language
to be added to the organization's six official languages.
The issue was brought up during a meeting between Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on
the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York two weeks ago,
the Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.
`Recognition of official languages is an issue UN member countries can
decide on,' Ban was quoted by Anatolia as saying in response to
ErdoÄ?an's request to the UN to recognize Turkish as an official UN
language.
The UN currently has six official languages, namely Arabic, Chinese,
English, French, Russian and Spanish. It is, however, very costly and
difficult to add a new language to the list. When Arabic became an
official language, Anatolia noted, Arabic-speaking countries had to
pay three years' worth of translation costs in order to use Arabic as
a working and official language at the UN.
So far, Bengali, Indian and Portuguese have been discussed as
candidates for the seventh language, but no solid development has
surfaced regarding the process. Turkish is also noted to be at a
disadvantage since the language is spoken only in Turkey.
On the other hand, Turkish is a part of the Turkic language family,
the members of which are spoken in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan among the member countries. The
UN receives constant criticism for using mainly English, while other
languages usually end up being ignored in the translation process.