Language Policies Directed At Borchali and South Azerbaijan Turks and Mother Tongue Problem

Abstract

Language is an important factor that constitutes national identity. Language policies have become a state structure that aims to unite peoples under state rule, as well as organize and reorganize their lives. The establishment of a political central authority that dominates the society’s thoughts through language is the most essential element of social construction processes in the new world order. This study examines the current situation of Azerbaijani Turkish in Borchali (Georgia) and South Azerbaijan (Iran) from socio-political and sociolinguistic perspectives. In this context, language policies, language planning and language rights, and monolingualism with its assimilationist characteristics, are included in the theoretical framework for the first part of this research. The second part explains the language policy implemented in Georgia and discusses the mother tongue education problems faced by minorities. Data on language policy practices in Iran, the position of Azerbaijani Turkish against the titular language, and the problems related to South Azerbaijan Turks’ right to education in their mother tongue are interpreted in the third part. In the last section, attention is drawn to the role of language policy in Azerbaijan’s multi-culturalism model, as a solution method for the aforementioned problems.

Keywords

• language politics
• ethnic minorities
• assimilation
• rights
• mother tongue