Rapprochement of Turkic states to save languages from dying - Öcal Oğuz

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Chairman of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO Öcal Oğuz called for rapprochement of Turkic-speaking nations at the 2nd Great Steppe: Humanities Forum in Astana on Friday.

He told Kazinform correspondent it will protect Turkic languages from dying.

According to Mr. Oğuz, even though the Turkic languages are used for economic, social and cultural contacts, the risk is still there.

"You know that the UN has six official languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. International academic community is concerned about the future of other languages. Up to 5-10 languages will survive the process of globalization, others are likely to disappear. In order to make sure the Turkic languages don't suffer the same fate, we [Turkic-speaking nations] need to become closer," he said on the sidelines of the forum.

In his words, presently over 300 million people worldwide speak in Turkic languages, including Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Turkish and many more.