@article{article_953110, title={The Role of Language and Religion in Estonian Tatar Identity-building}, journal={Tehlikedeki Diller Dergisi}, volume={11}, pages={274–287}, year={2021}, author={Lepa, Ege}, keywords={Tatars, Estonia, Islam, language, identity, family}, abstract={ Today less than 2,000 Tatars live in Estonia. The basis of their identity as Tatars are the language and the Islamic faith. The end of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth century were favourable times for the Estonian Tatar community and children’s Sunday and summer schools; drama societies and choirs were active in the capital and other northeastern towns of Estonia. The activities were a unique cultural phenomenon in the Lutheran and Estonian-speaking environment: a Muslim minority thriving, preserving and developing its culture while cooperating with the wider Tatar diaspora around the Baltic Sea. The uniqueness existed also in the details – Tatar children studied already in the 1920s geography, religion and their own language in Arabic script. The Narva Islamic Congregation’s imam was also the leader of a local Tatar drama society. After the imposed standstill in the Soviet period from the 1940s to the 1980s, the Tatar community in Estonia revived in the 1990s. The grandchildren of the so called pre-Soviet generation restored the Tatar Culture Society and Estonian Islamic Congregation in Tallinn. The immigration policy of the Soviet regime had however changed the balance in the Tatar community. Although religion remains a basic key to Tatar identity, the role of the language is different now. Today Tatar children study religion in Tallinn and Maardu using Russian language and Tatar teaching materials in Cyrillic or Latin script. The generation from the pre-Soviet period has also transferred the responsibility for preserving the Tatar language and Islamic religion to the new generation whose background, education and experience reflect twenty-first century Estonian and European realities. This study is based on extensive interviews with Tatars and discusses the language situation during the past century. }, number={19}, publisher={Ülkü ÇELİK ŞAVK}