(Jewish Telegrapbic Agency)
The language question cannot be regulated by manifestations, fisticuffs and the exchange of insults, writes the Turkish paper “Alschan” protesting against the action of the students who are resorting to threats and violence to compel the Jews to speak Turkish.
“The students,” the paper says, “placard the tramears and other public places with notices bearing the inscription: ‘Citizen, speak Turkish !’ There is no law making it a panishable offence to refuse to speak Turkish. All we can do is to appeal to our fellow-citizens with courtesy and tact that they should speak Turkish. We cannot do more. We must leave the rest to their feeling of attachment to the country. We should treat them as citizens and invite them to speak Turkish. And if they do not speak Turkish, what then? Nothing !
“The proper thing to do is to arrange conditions so that everyone will find it essential for the purpose of their ordinary every-day needs to speak our language. If we take to insulting and maltreating people because they do not speak Turkish. we shall be in the wrong. and the law can be invoked against us. What we have to do is to see that everybody should be given a proper training in Turkish so that they should be able to express themselves readily in our language. To compel them by threats and violence to speak Turkish will not achieve the purpose we have in view. The results of such efforts will be only superiicial and without any real effect.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
