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<h1>Struggle for Tatar language: Soviet dissidents' method, Putin's quote book and negotiations behind closed doors</h1>
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<span class="gmail-date"> <a href="https://realnoevremya.com/articles/archive/28.05.2018">08:00, 28.05.2018</a></span>
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<p>Understanding the position of the Tatarstan leadership on
the language issue according to information provided by its official
representative</p>
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<img src="https://realnoevremya.com/uploads/articles/38/92/a040b6206de27905.jpg" alt="Struggle for Tatar language: Soviet dissidents' method, Putin's quote book and negotiations behind closed doors" width="660" height="405">
<span class="gmail-author">Photo: Maksim Platonov</span>
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<p></p><p>A briefing of official representative of the Kazan
Kremlin Lilia Galimova, held in the Cabinet of Ministers of the
Republic of Tatarstan, was dedicated to the eventful programme of Rustam
Minnikhanov at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The
correspondent station of Realnoe Vremya at SPIEF 2018 is keeping readers
informed of the events. But as soon as it came to answering
journalists' questions, most of the conversation was reduced to the
language issue, exacerbated by the ''Arshinova's bill'', which
significantly reduces the status of the languages of the peoples of
Russia in the education system. As Galimova's words reflect the point of
view of the President of Tatarstan and his administration, it is worth
to dwell on this part of the briefing.</p><p></p>
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<h2>''Observe your constitution!''</h2><p>The stance of the president and the top leadership of the Republic of Tatarstan has been clearly stated: they are against the <a href="https://realnoevremya.com/articles/2413-tatarstan-state-council-mps-begin-to-defend-tatar-language">proposed amendments</a>
to the federal law ''On education". Several methods have been chosen to
defend their position. It is curious that they all belong to different,
even mutually exclusive, political cultures. But in an environment
where international policy is executed using ''hybrid'' methods, this is
not surprising.</p><p>The first way to protect the Kazan Kremlin in
matters of language policy was developed by the son of Sergey Yesenin —
well-known human rights activist Alexander Yesenin-Volpin, then it was
taken up by Soviet dissidents. ''Observe your constitution!'' they
responded to all actions of the authorities, which by form and essence
contradicted the lofty words of the ''Stalin constitution'' in 1936 and
''Brezhnev constitution'' in 1977. In practical application, this
principle helped political prisoners to pursue their goals through
invoking state regulations.</p><p>''This is not only the problem of
Tatarstan. The issue has been widely discussed at various platforms and
in various regions of the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, in this
civilized way to negotiate, there appear some activists, political
experts who begin to destabilize these topics, manipulating with
articles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which,
apparently, they have never read and never seen. Because if they opened
the Constitution, they wouldn't even be making such arguments. For such
lazy people I can read out the moments on which it is necessary to rely
in part of defending our rights, understanding that the republics of the
Russian Federation have the right to establish the state languages,
which are used in public authorities, in local governments, in public
institutions, along with the state language of the Russian Federation —
Russian. It is provided by the 2nd part of the article 68 of the
Constitution of the Russian Federation. Also, all people are guaranteed
the right to preserve their native ethnic language and create conditions
for its study and development,'' said Galimova.</p><p><img src="https://realnoevremya.com/uploads/article/ff/4b/8e78e7c1499ec471.jpg"></p><p class="gmail-authorSingle">As
soon as it came to answering journalists' questions, most of the
conversation was reduced to the language issue, exacerbated by the
''Arshinova's bill''. Photo: Maksim Platonov</p><p>Lilia Galimova
devoted further excursion into the legislation to the articles of the
federal laws ''On languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation'',
''On education'', based on the Constitution, as well as to the
well-known decision of the constitutional court of the Russian
Federation, which designated that in order to ensure the use of the
Tatar language in all spheres of official relations, Tatarstan
legislators have the right to provide its study as a state language of
the republic in obtaining basic general education.</p><p>''Based on what
I have just stated, the establishment of voluntary basis for study of
state languages in the Russian Federation, as provided by the draft
bill, is contrary to the above mentioned norms of the Constitution of
the Russian Federation,'' Galimova summarized.</p><h2>Formally, Putin's word is not a law yet, but a weighty argument</h2><p>The
second group of arguments voiced by Galimova comes from a completely
different legal culture than strict adherence to the letter of the law
according to Yesenin-Volpin. Russia remains a country of ''manual
control'', it seems that there is no escape from this. By the
recognition of the deputy head of the press service of the President of
the Republic of Tatarstan, she was well prepared for the meeting with
journalists and chose quotes from Vladimir Putin's speeches on the
national issue.</p><p>''Those who say ''Russia is for Russians'', you
know, it is difficult to resist not to give characteristics to these
people. They are either dishonest people who do not understand what they
are saying, and then they are just fools or provocateurs because Russia
is a multi-ethnic country,'' the president of Russia said during Hot
Line with President of Russia in 2003.</p><p>''For each people, the
issue of preserving the native ethnic language is a question of
preserving its identity and traditions. The comprehensive work on the
study and support of the languages of the peoples of Russia, of course,
should be continued,'' he said in 2015 at a joint meeting of the Council
on interethnic relations and the Council on the Russian language.</p><p><img src="https://realnoevremya.com/uploads/article/c4/44/11806dfd266eac22.jpg"></p><p class="gmail-authorSingle">There
is no doubt that Putin himself is a supporter of cautious approach to
the national question, for which he is regularly reproached by Russian
nationalists. Photo: <a href="http://kremlin.ru">kremlin.ru</a></p><p>The Internet has already developed
a special genre, when people cut videos with quotes of politicians over
the past years and provide them with information about the ratio of
words to figures and facts. There is no doubt that Putin himself is a
supporter of cautious approach to the national question, for which he is
regularly reproached by Russian nationalists. But isn't there an
element of complacency of the republican elite in the selection of
convenient quotations that do not formally have the force of law? Or is
it just a diplomatic ritual to match the spirit of the time where the
state is personalized? These questions can be answered only by the
results of the struggle for language.</p><h2>Federal standard of teaching the state languages of subjects of the Russian Federation is ripenning in the quietness of cabinets</h2><p>In
addition to counteracting the initiatives aimed at discrimination of
languages, Tatarstan is working to develop a federal standard for
teaching state languages of the subjects of the Russian Federation.
Answering our question about the current status of this work, Lilia
Galimova discovered a third method — the method of backstage
negotiations and agreements that take place beyond public scrutiny.</p><p>''Rustam
Minnikhanov at his level, the ministry of education at its level are
negotiating. It is a desk work so far, where we have no common
formulation which we could definitely announce. This is a painstaking
work, which began not this year and is connected with finding a
convenient and compromise option for everyone,'' Lilia Galimova answered
to Realnoe Vremya.</p><p>She also stressed that these issues are solved
by Tatarstan directly with the federal centre, without involving other
national regions. This work at the state level is clearly different from
the speeches of public figures from different regions and peoples, who
in a short time managed to form the horizontal interaction. It is
obvious that for this environment the style of work of Tatarstan state
structures may seem very slow, too moderate and not public enough. But
it is the ability to avoid extreme hasty decisions that allowed the
republic to survive the political crises of the 1990s and the attack on
federalism in the 2000s. The correctness or fallacy of the chosen path
can be assessed only by results.</p><p><img src="https://realnoevremya.com/uploads/article/df/6d/748d18a01a81d038.jpg"></p><p class="gmail-authorSingle">The schedule of Rustam Minnikhanov included a meeting with the leadership of Gagauz Republic. Photo: <a href="http://tatarstan.ru">tatarstan.ru</a></p><p>While
the official representative of the Tatarstan president was talking to
journalists at the government house on Liberty Square, her chief was
working in Saint-Petersburg. The schedule of Rustam Minnikhanov included
a meeting with the leadership of Gagauz Republic. There were times when
Turkic Gagauzia and Russian-speaking Transnistria opposed the attempts
of official Chisinau to impose the Romanian identity. The unrecognized
Transnistrian Moldavian Republic is the small homeland of Deputy of the
State Duma Alena Arshinova, whose name is the first among the
politicians who initiated the scandalous draft bill.</p>
<div class="gmail-detailAuthors">
<span>By Mark Shishkin</span>
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<span class="gmail-wrap_category">
<a href="https://realnoevremya.com/region/tatarstan" class="gmail-region">Tatarstan</a> </span>
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<div class="gmail-headerBlock"><h2>Related articles<span id="gmail-ctrlcopy"><br>Source : <a href="https://realnoevremya.com/articles/2503-lilia-galimova-about-stance-of-tatarstan-leadership-on-language-issue">https://realnoevremya.com/articles/2503-lilia-galimova-about-stance-of-tatarstan-leadership-on-language-issue</a></span></h2></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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