They take away our languages – we’ll not be quiet

They take away our languages – we’ll not be quiet

We are compelled to note that in 2018 the situation with respect of language rights for peoples of Idel-Ural became only worse. Erzyan, Mokshan, Chuvash, Mari, Tatar, Udmurt and Bashkir languages not only did not extend their scope of application – on the contrary, their positions in education have weakened substantially. Russian authorities offer to our people to practice their mother tongues in families, to sing folk songs in villages and to participate voluntarily in humiliating bureaucratic measures, aimed to cover russification with slogans about friendship of nations. We demand the most exdended functioning of our official languages in all spheres of public and private life, from government services to television and radion broadcasting.

Unfortunately, any dialog with authorities simply does not exist at the moment. Artificial eradication of Mari, Erzyan or Bashkir languages from everyday life takes place under hypocritical slogans like “Stop incite enmity! Language problem does not exist!” Certainly, when Russian language is studied in schools as mandatory class and languages of our title nations must undergo special humiliating procedure of writing statements, it’s very comfortable to speak about absence of violent russification. However, it does not mean that current unjust state of affairs satisfies people of Idel-Ural.

Our movement Free Idel-Ural have appealed to the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) with a request to call state authorities of Russian Federation to stop their policy of assimilation of native peoples of Idel-Ural and to abolish discriminatory amendments in Federal Law “On education” intended to forbid obligatory study of official languages, other than Russian, in general educational establishments.

Kremlin must understand that we will never accept russifiaction as blessing. Elimination of our languages, unwillingness to make compromises with native peoples only complicates international relations in Idel-Ural and intricates dialog of Idel-Ural republics with federal center.

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