Part 8. Language issue.
Correspondent of the “Medusa” edition:
– Mr. President, returning to the relations between Kazakhstan and Russia, please tell me, do you, as the president of the country, feel the growth of anti-Russian sentiment in Kazakhstan, what is happening all over the world now? Are you aware of the activity of the national patriots of Kazakhstan, in particular on the status of the Russian language? After all, as you know, it was this question that became the trigger, the trigger for the beginning of the Maidan in Ukraine, and then led to the current war?
President Tokayev:
– Yes, I am well aware of the main sentiments in the Kazakh society and I want to express my point of view. In general, we will continue the policy of national sovereignty, that is, independence and self-determination, including in the language issue. We will not. allow anyone to forcibly impose special statuses on any languages on the territory of our country. And we will develop our native state Kazakh language. Its application will expand every year. Over time, it will become not only officially, by law, the main language of the country, but also in fact. Sooner or later it will happen. I want everyone to realize this, first of all, the citizens of our country who do not speak the state language now.
At the same time, I want to say that this process will go very smoothly and without kinks. In the near future, we will adopt a state program that will clearly spell out the stages, deadlines and specific measures to expand the operation of the Kazakh language on the territory of our country. As the president of the country and as the guarantor of the Constitution of the country, I officially declare that in this process the legal rights of any ethnic group living on the territory of our country will not be violated, and the rights of any native speaker of another language will not be violated. We will not demand more than what any other country, be it Russia, the USA, France, Germany, and so on, demands from its own and foreign citizens on its territory. That is, there will be one state language and all other languages will have equal rights.
Correspondent of the “Medusa” edition:
– Mr. President, however, even the status you are talking about now may seem to many Russian-speaking citizens of Kazakhstan to infringe on their rights, or at least worsen their situation. Many of them would like to continue living in bilingual Kazakhstan and not change anything. Won’t your policy cause their discontent and opposition?
President Tokayev:
– When I talk about strengthening the role of the Kazakh language in the life of our society, I in no way mean infringement of other languages. No one will ever prohibit people from speaking to each other in any language of the world on behalf of the state. Moreover, I dream that there would be many foreign tourists in our country who would communicate with each other in their own languages and that speech in dozens of languages would be heard on the streets of our cities, as it is happening now in Paris, London or New York. Openness and tolerance, including in the language issue, is our state policy.
However, any citizen of Kazakhstan who does not speak foreign languages should have the right and opportunity to live comfortably and receive any kind of services, buy any goods on the territory of our country, using only one state Kazakh language, if he so wants. This is a legitimate and fair right of a citizen of any country.
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