A campaign by Turkish students to force Ladino and French speaking Jews and other minorities to use only Turkish in public places was ordered stopped today by Turkish authorities.
General Refik Tulga, military Governor of Istanbul, who originally supported the effort, told representatives of the Turkish National Students Union, to end it immediately. He said that the campaign had turned out to be “against Turkey’s national interests and international obligations,” Later the General tod reporters that “nothing is so natural for all citizens and foreigners in Turkey as to enjoy human rights in freedom. “
The cancelation order followed heated public debate and some minor incidents between representatives of the students union and members of minorities speaking their languages. The students conducted the campaign with posters, slogans and person-to-person contacts.
Turkish newspapers strongly opposed the idea and urged the students to drop it and solve the problem through education and not by force or pressure. The cancelation decision was welcomed by Turkish Jews, some of whom still use Ladino or French as a mother tongue. The younger generation of Turkish Jews speak Turkish fluently.
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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.
