Languages of Turkey

The official language of Turkey is Turkish. Ethnologue lists the following minority languages: Abaza, Abkhaz, Adyghe, Armenian, Balkan Gagauz Turkish, Balkan Romani, Bulgarian, Crimean Turkish, Dimli, Domari, Georgian, Greek, Hértevin, Kabardian, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Kirmanjki, Kumyk, Ladino, Laz, North Mesopotamian Arabic, Northern Kurdish, Osetin, Pontic, Serbian, South Azerbaijani, Southern Uzbek, Tatar, Tosk Albanian, Turkish Sign language, Turkmen, Turoyo and Uyghur.

According to Article 42 of the Constitution of Turkey:

This provision has been criticized by Human Rights Watch who claim that ethnic minorities face restrictions in the use of their languages. They further observe that "the Turkish government accepts the language rights of the Jewish, Greek and Armenian minorities as being guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. But the government claims that these are Turkey's only minorities, and that any talk of minority rights beyond this is just separatism". [ [http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/08/turkeyqa041902.htm Freedom of Expression and Language Rights in Turkey] ]

See also

* Demographics of Turkey

References

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=TR Languages of Turkey] by Ethnologue