Why did Ataturk change Turkish writing from Arabic to Roman alphabets?

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Mehmet K

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js giggy

Mustapha Kamel Atatürk made many changes to modernize and westernize Turkey. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish people lagged behind the Europeans in many ways. Measures like changing to a western alphabet accelerated integration with Europe and sped Turkey's recovery.

.:::Niko:::.

why not?
Did it bother you?
Did it please you?
What is your point?

www.freewebs.com/belles-lettres

The question is incorrect: the Arab script has not 612 but about 40 symbols; Armenian have theit own alphabet which is neither Greek nor Roman.

Totally Blunt

As a matter of fact, Turks were looking toward the west, not east. So, the script of the Armenian minority may have escaped their notice.

How is this for racist rhetoric? Sorry, I can't do worse than that. Because I have conscience. I reserve the right for you.

Edit: Vahe is right, except for one point. The Turks DID have an alphabet. The Orhun scripts in Mongolia are in Turkish and written with this alphabet:

http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orhun_Yaz%C4%B1tlar%C4%B1

As everybody in Turkey knows: "Budun baylıkı begke baylık turur."

ՎԱՀԷ

Arabic alphabets were not suitable for Turkish language sounds.
In fact, when Turks reached Anatolia, they didn't have any alphabet for their language. Ottomans have used different alphabets Armenian, Greek and the longest one Arabic.
But non of them were suitable.
Besides providing a compatible alphabet for Turkish, I think it was Ataturk's will to be more western-type rather than eastern.

EDIT:
Blunt, I know about that, Turks (better to say Turkic people) had their script in Turkestan but when they migrated to Anatolia (or generally to west) that was not in use, anymore.

EDIT2:
Blunt, what do you mean why Armenians do not use their own alphabet???

Irmak

Because Arabic is difficult to learn, write and speak.

istanbul bogazi in the Queendom

Actually Turkish Alphabet was different. Coming from the Ural Altaic origins. Arabic Alphabet was used at those days due to some circumstances of that period. But Turkish language is not compatible with Arabic letters.
The best one for our language was Latin ALphabet. And there are also some letters like ç,ü,ö for example (i don't have the Turkish keyboard so i won't be able to write all of them sorry) that we have added because of the sound of Turkish language.
We have 29 letters. We don't have q,x,w for example.

looper35

http://www.turkey.com
merry christmas and healthy eating 2008,..,

luckyman

it none of your fukin biz.go get yourself other things to deal

Rampage

That's is a great question..!! I have always wondered that myself..!! I hope you are not an Armenian..!! Cause if you are I won't agree with you nomore..!!

Alwin E

Atatürk deliberately wanted to resist the orthodox (Russian) church who used the kyrillic script, so he chose the western style. Contrary to what many people believe, the Turkish script was not like Arab, but rather resembled ancient Greek. Istanbul is also known as Constantinople, the capital of the East Roman empire, until re-conquered by the Muslims, and rightfully so.

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