Tatar congress adopts resolution to protect language, culture
The World Congress of Tatars (DTK) has adopted a resolution on
preserving the Tatar language, culture, religion and traditions,
Radio Liberty reported.
The resolution will be sent to Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
The DTK's lawyer Artur Zinnatullin told RFE/RL that about 800
delegates from Tatar communities in Russia and abroad finished the
DTK's four-day assembly in Tatarstan's capital, Kazan, on December
9.
The gathering took place as the Russian Duma is scheduled to resume
debates over the draft of a new education law on December 11 that
would allow parents in ethnic republics to decide if their children
should study indigenous languages at school.
Current laws in the republics require children of any ethnicity to
study indigenous languages, which, along with Russian, are official
languages in the republics.