Turkic states agree on common alphabet for members

BAKU

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).

"The main purpose of the meeting was to finalize the work on the common alphabet project for the Turkic languages by benefiting from the information obtained in this field and the two-year experience of the commission," the Turkic Academy, established within the TDT, said in a statement.

A project for the Latin-based common alphabet was reviewed in detail during the discussions.

Currently, Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan use the Latin alphabet, while Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan continue to utilize the Cyrillic script.

“A proposal for a common Turkic alphabet consisting of 34 letters was agreed upon. Each letter in the proposed alphabet represents different phonemes found in Turkic languages,” read the statement.