A new textbook of the Ossetian language has been issued in the occupied territory of Tskhinvali, in which the following letters have been removed: „й, ё, ш, ж, э, ю, я, ъ, ь“.
The book author Zoia Bitard’s decision on the removal of the aforementioned letters has ignited protests, with school teachers and parents demanding that the new textbooks be removed from the school programme.
People dissatisfied with the decision do not hold back and openly criticize it on social media.
“They must agree with the public, including teachers of the Ossetian language, on any change to the Ossetian alphabet, and the decision must be made after public hearing,” writes one of the users, Soslan Ostaev.
“Before this, we’ve had a common alphabet on which Napi Jusoit and Vaso Ambaev wrote; as it now turns out, we have extra letters,” states the resident of the occupied region of Tskhinvali, Madina Bagaeva.