“If the Customs Union members officially have equal rights, they should have the right to receive official documents in their national languages, which is done in the European Union,” believes the member of “We are against foreign-language schools” initiative Aram Apatyan.
The claims of Chairman of the State Duma’s Committee for the CIS, Eurasian Integration and Relations Leonid Slutsky sound strange to him that they need to put forward the issue of the Russian language in the Eurasian Union to be a language if not at higher status, at least at the technical status, because all documents, economic agreements would be in Russian, and Belarus and Kazakhstan have accepted it.” Mr. Slutsky’s reasons do not seem fundamental for Mr. Apatyan as to why the documents cannot be translated into Armenian. “You know, you have to be professional translators, language is technical, and they might not translate all. ” What is the Russian official’s dream or goal, he might want everything to be in Russian, and that everyone understands how important Russian language is. The explanations that it is difficult to do it, because it is technically difficult, there are no translators, is not serious. There are translators in Armenia, and the texts do not represent artistic value and can be easily translated. I do not see such a problem. Becoming a member of the Customs Union, authorities and political forces should protect the independence of the Armenian language. By granting a special status to the Russian language, the word will go about colonialism. Since it is not yet clear what is meant by saying that the Russian language proficiency must be raised. First, we must understand what methods will be used to achieve it, especially when the matter is about opening Russian schools. We have repeatedly said that it is absolutely not acceptable, likewise, the statement of opening a Russian Lyceum in Yerevan is not acceptable. The Armenian authorities should reject the initiative of giving status to the Russian language,” said Mr. Apatyan.
As per his words, no one in Armenia is against improving the teaching of the Russian language in Armenian schools, advancing the level of Russian language specialists. “We always support for better knowledge of foreign languages. But it should not be done at the expense of teaching subjects in Russian. If this is the ultimate dream of the Russian official, it is absolutely not acceptable.” Mr. Apatyan was partly concerned about the RF Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko’s statement about strengthening of Russian position in Eurasian area and preparation of Russian teacher, “Why not, if such programs are implemented, and new teachers of Russian are prepared, then a question will arise where these teachers should teach, there are no schools. And an idea will occur, well, then we should open Russian schools. Currently, the number of teachers in Armenia is far more than the number of students.
So, Matvienko’s saying is not about Armenia, because, maybe, it is necessary to improve the teaching skills, but there is no sense to increase the number. Matviyenko does not know the statistics of different countries of how many Russian language teachers are in each country, it’s more politically oriented statement, but we need to be careful that its effects will not cause another pressing factor with respect to opening of Russian language schools in Armenia.
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Arpine Simonyan
