Turkish Language Enters Euro Area

When, at the beginning of this year, Cyprus adopted the euro and joined the euro area, the Turkish language joined the European language community.

 

As a consequence of Cyprus’ EU membership al citizens of the Republic of Cyprus are also citizens of the European Union. This applies both to the Greek Community and the Turkish Community of Cyprus.

These two communities are defined in the Cypriote Constitution. The Turkish Community comprises among others all citizens of the Republic of Cyprus who are of Turkish origin and whose mother tongue is Turkish.

 

The Cypriot Constitution provides that Greek and Turkish are the Republic’s official languages. Legislative acts and government documents have to be drawn up and published in both official languages. Greeks and Turks must be addressed by the Cypriot government in the Greek or the Turkish language respectively.

 

Cyprus’ language diversity also manifests itself on, among other things, stamps, and Cypriot banknotes and coins. As of January 1, 2008, on the national side of “Cypriot euro coins” the name “Cyprus” reads both “KΥΠΡΟΣ” in Greek and “KIBRIS” in Turkish.

 

On May 19, 2006, AgoraVox ran an article, authored by myself and titled “Turkey’s European Dream Starts with the Turkish Language”.

Source of pictures: ECB website