“The contact language of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan Customs services is Russian, whereas in Armenia, it is Armenian… serious work should be conducted otherwise we can not understand each other. A lot of things have to be learned a new,” this statement was made by Andrey Belyaninov, Director of Russia’s Federal Customs Service. This statement clearly makes it clear that the Russian Customs checkpoint raises the question of communication language with Armenia, in which the figures of Armenia of various circles have expressed their concern about the risk after the statement of joining the Customs Union. Aravot.am asked Aram Apatyan, member of “We are against foreign-language schools” initiative, what risks Russia’s intentions could lead to. He said, “If Armenia recognizes Russian as the language used in the Customs Union, we will lose one more area where Armenian language is used. As a result, Armenian language will become weak. I see a trend to it in this statement.”
To our observation that Armenia is already in the process, now, how it can avoid such a situation, Mr. Apatyan responded as follows, “Entering the process or not, makes no difference, as the citizens of Armenia should be able to have access to relevant information in Armenian language. And, the functions that are performed in-between these organizations, may be accompanied with a necessary translation. This statement could mean many different things. It would be easier of the Russian side to send papers written in Russian language, without translation and be used everywhere avoiding the headaches. But, it is absolutely not acceptable for Armenia. Concession of sovereignty does not happen all at once, it consists of such elements, and the language is a very important element that we should nowise yield to anyone.”
Artak Davtyan, President of NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs, “does not consider topical” raising this issue and notes, “It seems we exaggerated the colors. If it matter refers to communication, it is worth mentioning that there are 10 million people speaking Armenian, whereas people communicating in Russian are 3 hundred million. Naturally, it is difficult to impose 3 hundred million people to learn the language of the 10 million. And, specifically in the territory of the Customs Union, people need to know Russian for communication.” With regard to the observation that it is possible to provide translation, Mr. Davtyan responded, “If it come to the international cargo transportation, Armenian language is still not used there. Translation can be provided if Armenia has a checkpoint, and if not, how it can be provided. Let’s take Georgians, on receiving goods from China, we say Kazakh frontier to learn Armenian. We are creating huge problems for us and later start heroically overcoming them.” Artak Davtyan does not only see the risk of losing the sovereignty, but also claims, “In Armenia, pursuant to the Constitution and the laws, it says about the state language in Armenia. And if we should protect our sovereignty in RF or let’s say in Brest, they are mutually exclusive concepts. Sovereignty implies that higher authorities do not exist. I think that there should be no higher authority in Brest than the authorities of Belarus.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
