ABSTRACT

The subject of this study is to question the role of the associations in teaching Turkish that is established by the Turks in Serbia. Although the level of use of minority rights by Serbian Turks is far from competing with the rights of Croats, Hungarians, Romani-ans, and Macedonians, who are the strong minorities living in the country, especially the Serbian Turks Association (UdruzenjeTuraka u Srbiji) in recent years makes an extraordinary effort for using the cultural rights (teaching Turkish) of the aforemen-tioned nation. In this context, the International Serbian Turkish Friendship Association (Internationalna Nevladina Asocijacija za Toleranciu), which contributes to the devel-opment of relations between Turkey and Serbia, although not as much as the Associa-tion of Serbian Turks, is also evaluated. In this study, the actions of the above-mentioned associations are analyzed by considering the year 2006 as a milestone when the Belgrade government adopted a liberal Constitution. The question that is sought for an answer is as follows: “To what extent do Turkish associations in Serbia play a role in teaching Turkish and enabling Turks to obtain minority status?” The data collected in the field research were evaluated through qualitative content analysis.