On Thursday, March 25, the Parliament of the Republic of Artsakh voted 27 to 0 with 2 abstentions to approve amendments to the Law on language according to which the Russian language has been granted with an official status in Artsakh.
MP Aram Harutyunyan, co-author of the bill, stressed that only “the Armenian language is, has been, and will always be the mother tongue” in Artsakh. Armenian will still remain as the only state language in the Republic of Artsakh, and Russian receives a status of an official language in parallel with Armenian.
Amendments to the law on language will enter into force on the tenth day from the date of official publication.
The bill was drafted by Vice-President of the National Assembly MP Gagik Baghunts, MP Aram Harutyunyan, chairman of the standing committee on science, education, culture, youth and sports, and MP Metakse Hakobyan.
“Given the historic memory of cultural, military, economic relations between Artsakh and Russia and the fact that Russian serves as the second language for communication for many residents of Artsakh, we highlight re-valuing the new-quality relations and forming new agenda. In this context, we attach importance to the increase of the status of the Russian language which will create necessary conditions for deepening the cooperation in all areas and will contribute to the development of relations in legal framework in the future,” said the authors of the bill.
“The need for a long-term presence of Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh, the joint solution of many social and communication problems, cooperation in the fields of construction, health, education and science requires a reassessment of the role of the Russian language,” said the authors.
