An article attacking the Jews in Turkey for employing Judeo-Spanish was published by the Turkish paper, "Vakit", which declares that Judeo-Spanish is "a jargon unworthy of being spoken in Turkey."
"Their Turkish pronunciation is affected by their dialect", the paper states. "The majority of them can read Turkish and a number of them write it as well. Notwithstanding this, they continue to consider their Judeo-Spanish jargon as their mother tongue.
"It is foolish to persist in using this absurd jargon. We would not mind if they tried to receive a dead language like Hebrew, which they use for their ritual and which places them in contact with their co-religionists in other countries. To preserve the language of a country which expelled them four centuries ago, and to employ it in the midst of a population which has given them all hospitality, suggests that Spain did right in ejecting the Jews.
"Our objection to the use of Judeo-Spanish is not prompted by animosity towards the Jews, who are a useful element in the country. That is why we desire that all our nationals of the Jewish faith should give up their jargon and speak, read and write Turkish, so that they should be able to serve Turkish civilization and become an important factor in the life of our country, as the Jews are in other countries", the "Vakit" concludes.
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.
