Personally, I am in favor of the development of the Russian language in Armenia. As with other languages which are spoken by tens of millions of people and which is used in an extensive literature: English, Chinese, German and French. I as a student who has studied in 1978-1983 have a huge advantage as compared to the majority of Armenian students today because I could read professional literature in the Russian language. I doubt that even today the students of the American University in Armenia are reading so much in English as we were reading in Russian. I am in favor of the development of the Russian language in particular also because I see a great artistic and moral potential in the Russian literature and I am sure I would have lost a lot if I had not read the works of these classics in the original.
But when Russian officials are saying, let us develop the Russian language in the post-Soviet regions, they mean absolutely something else: let’s make sure that the language is given an official status. If they can influence the authorities of the post-Soviet countries, then it is done through the authorities, if not then other social and political forces take on this task. What is meant by a “state status” that the Armenian official will be able to deal with documentation in two languages? That the Armenian parents will take the Armenian child to a Russian school? That not knowing Armenian and speaking Russian will be considered a kind of “aristocratism”? We have passed all that and it is senseless to even talk much about it because it is not possible to return to it. The problem is not that the Soviet was good or bad, the problem is that the “Eurasian project” in contrast to the Soviet projects do not contain any civilizational advantages for their participants (including, of course, for Russia).
This does not mean that never and nowhere there should be two or more languages with official status. For example, by the Constitution of Canada, English and French have a similar status which are spoken by 67.1 and 21.5 percent of the population, respectively. This means that all federal laws must be adopted in two languages, and the public authorities are required to provide their services in English and French at the choice of the citizen. Now, let us compare with Armenia where Yezidis are the largest ethnic minority: 1.2 percent of the population, the rest are less than one percent.
… The Russian ruling elite has imperial phantom pains. Never mind, keep warm and it will go away.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
