Arayik Harutyunyan, a member of the “Yelq” faction of Yerevan Council of Elders, believes that making Russian as a second state language in Armenia is a lasting process.
Let us remind: recently, during a meeting with the parliamentary delegation of the Republic of Armenia to Russia, in response to a request for permission to travel to Russia with Armenian driving licenses, Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that in that case, Russian should become the second state language in Armenia.
During the discussion at “Media Centre” today, Arayik Harutyunyan recalled, that during the re-opening of foreign-language schools or before that, Russian officials had such questionings. “This is one of Russia’s foreign policy guidelines, in particular, to make the Russian language a state language in the CIS territory. Language is an important tool. In 2007, the Armenian authorities were given such a statement of question at the highest level and the Armenian authorities strongly opposed it. Such questions were raised in 2010 when the issue of reopening foreign-language schools was discussed. Now it is another attempt to understand society’s attitude to that problem. I’m glad that the public opposes clearly and strongly. This shows that concessions on this issue are unacceptable. People with different ideologies and orientations agree on this issue. Our response will be very sharp”, he said.
It should be reminded that there is no question of making Russian a second state language in the agenda of the Republic of Armenia and will not be in the near future, according to Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Armen Ashotyan.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
