ABSTRACT

The language played an important role in the nation-building and statecraft process of the Central Asian republics that reached their independence as a result of the collapse of the Soviet-Union. Institutionalized as an main tool of nation-bulding and nationalization, the language’s initial role is changed due to factors such as multi- ethnic structure, nature and functionning of the political regimes and the liberal transformation of the economic system in Central Asia. With the authoritization of the political regimes, the language policies begun to become distant from the principles and practices of democracy . In this essay, the transformation of the language’s role is analyzed in historical persepective and evaluated its role in the democratization process of the Central Asian republics.