04.08.2023. » 10:43

OP - ED Language Rights: Official Use of the Turkish Language in Kosovo

İbrahim Ömer, a law graduate and a member of the Consultative Council for Communities, wrote a text highlighting the challenges faced by the Turkish language in Kosovo and the importance of language rights for the Turkish-speaking community. Furthermore, he argues that while there have been advancements in some human rights areas, the lack of progress regarding the official use and recognition of the Turkish language in Kosovo represents a setback in the realization of language rights.

Turkish Language in Kosovo was recognized at the constitutional level with the Constitutional Law in 1969. The same rule was repeated with the 1974 Constitution. With these constitutions, Albanian, Serbian and Turkish including the written languages, have been accepted as the official language at the Kosovo level. The UNMIK administration, which served after the war, ignored the Turkish language. The 2001 Constitutional Framework did not impose a rule on official languages, but Albanian, Serbian and English began to be used in practice. This attitude of the UNMIK Administration is actually in contradiction with itself. UNMIK Administration, which has made reference to human rights at every opportunity, has remained passive when it comes to the official use of the Turkish language.

The Law on the Use of Languages, numbered 02/L-37, which was adopted in 2006, is more inadequate in terms of the official status of the Turkish language than before, and efforts should be made to change it. With the law, only Albanian and Serbian were accepted as official languages at the Kosovo level. Written languages of these languages are also secured. Other languages will have official use at the local level only if the conditions are met.

In the year the law was passed, the new census has not yet been made. Despite this, the law introduced a criterion for the use of the official language at the local level, such as the use of the community language by 5% of the population of that region. This requirement makes language rights very difficult, as non-majority communities in Kosovo live in dispersed municipalities and are often below this percentage. If the law has a positive aspect, it is the regulation that no percentage criteria will be sought for Turkish in terms of the Municipality of Prizren. This can be considered as positive at one point, but it is obvious that there is such a deficiency in terms of other municipalities. Again, there is no written language expression specified in previous constitutions. In other words, the written language of Turkish is not as secure as it used to be. This shows that Turkish letters can only be preserved as much as possible.

The other two categories introduced by the law are the language in official use and the traditional language. In summary, it is stated that if there is a 3% language community that does not constitute a majority living in a municipality, the relevant language will be the language in official use in that municipality. Also, if there is a language traditionally spoken in that area, the traditional language may be considered the language in official use by decision of the city council. There is a difference between the official language and the language in official use. All municipal transactions are made automatically in that language with the official language, while regarding the language in official use some documents and services can be provided in that language upon the request of the citizens. The implementation of this law is the acceptance of the Turkish language as the official language in Prizren and Mamusha Municipalities. In addition, in the municipalities of Pristina, Gilan, Mitrovica and Vushtira (Vucitrn), Turkish has been accepted as the language in official use, as the traditional language. When we think that this practice, which was accepted by the decision of the city council, can be abolished with a decision of the city council, we can see that the Turkish language is not in a secure status. For example; The municipalities of Gilan and Mitrovica added Turkish signboards besides Albanian and Serbian, but the same did not happen in the Municipality of Pristina and Vushtria. This is a more backward practice than before.

The rule brought by this law was also accepted in the 2008 Constitution. Therefore, it is a constitutional provision today that Albanian and Serbian are the official languages at the country level, and Turkish, Bosnian and Roman will be official at the local level. It is no longer enough to change the law to change this situation. A constitutional amendment is required. This is also quite difficult.

The law also negatively affects the participation of the Turkish community in decision-making mechanisms. Participation in decision-making mechanisms should not be understood only as representation in parliament and government. For example, the legal professions exam which must be taken in order to serve in the judiciary, is held in Albanian and Serbian, which are the official languages at the central level. As a result, this practice significantly complicates the representation of the Turkish community in the judiciary. The same applies to the exams held during the admissions process to the civil service, and to the police and military recruitment exams.

The Law on the Use of Languages is one of the laws with vital interest. Its replacement requires both a parliamentary majority and a majority vote of community representatives. But if there is consensus, it is not impossible to make positive changes. Positive amendments to the law should of course also cover the demands of other non-majority communities. Finally, steps should be taken to make central level exams such as civil service and legal professions exams in community languages for a more effective participation in decision-making mechanisms.

Consequently, we can say that the current Constitution of Kosovo brings advantageous regulations in terms of community rights. However, when it comes to the right to language, the current Constitution lagged behind the constitutional arrangements in the recent past. In other words, while human rights are constantly developing, there is a backwards movement regarding the official use of Turkish language in Kosovo.

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İbrahim Ömer was born in Pristina. He graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Law. He is still continuing his doctoral thesis studies at Uludag University, Department of Public Law. He was elected as a member of the Consultative Council for Communities in 2022. His main areas of interest are constitutional law, human rights and community rights.

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This publication was created as part of the project "Improving the capacity of the Agency for Free Legal Aid in northern Kosovo”, conducted by NGO ACDC. The project is part of the JUST REACT program, which is implemented by the Community Development Fund (CDF) and the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), and funded by the European Commission.

This was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union”.