Tatarstan President meets members of Foreign Correspondents Association

The course of political and economic reforms in Tatarstan, activization of democratic processes in the republic, coexistence of two main confessions, problems of entry into uniform financial and legal field of Russia, transfer of the Tatar to the Latin script and many other questions were discussed during the meeting of Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev with members of the Association of foreign correspondents on September 10 in the Kazan Kremlin.

Concerning the Latin script, Mintimer Shaimiev said that in Russia this problem gets overpoliticized. Some politicians believe that transfer to the Latin will result in Tatarstan's secession from Russia. However this is not true. In Tatarstan, Turkic-speaking peoples make the majority of the population. It's obvious that the Latin script is more convenient for these peoples, gives better opportunities with regard to pronunciation, more exact expression of meaning, ultimately, preservation of language in its original form. But there is also other side. We have unnecessary, but wide experience. Before the revolution of 1917, we had the Arabian script, then we adopted Latin, then cyrillics. And each time a generation is virtually cut off for a certain period of time until works of science and art are translated into this script.

The sovereignty of Tatarstan is not aimed at the destruction of the Russian Federation, M.Shaimiev said, making comments on today's political situation. Unfortunately, many politicians in Russia lived in conditions of a big empire. All of thise who could not reconstruct their mentality have imperial thinking. And in a unitary state there are always less problems. But Russia have no other way than that of the democratic development. Multinational Russia, proceeding from its features, history, should be federal. To call for unitarism means to make impossible democratic development of Russia.

Today the society can not refuse from the principles of democratic development, we have understood what freedom means, personal freedom. Any pressure upon a mass media is painfully perceived by other media. I have managed to overcome myself in my attitude towards mass media, M.Shaimiev said. I was in power under the previous regime also. Certainly, the presence of free mass media is not convenient for politicians, but it is better to have them and to go through it. We do not have a single fact of restriction of the freedom of speech. We do not always love authority, but we may not do without it).