[lg policy] Opposition Mounts to Proposed Foreign-Language Schools in Armenia

[Harold Schiffman]

Opposition Mounts to Proposed Foreign-Language Schools in Armenia
June 16, 2010 - 10:52am, by Marianna Grigoryan

A government initiative to re-open foreign-language schools in Armenia
after a 17-year ban is generating a heated public outcry. Many are
concerned that the move, if implemented, would damage the country’s
Armenian-language educational system. Draft amendments to the Law on
Language and the Law on General Education, submitted by Education
Minister Armen Ashotian to parliament on June 4, would allow 15
foreign-language schools to reopen in Armenia. Such schools have been
prohibited since 1993, when the government, headed by current
opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian, closed them amid a post-Soviet
wave of nationalism.

With an eye to that Soviet past, most critics assume that the proposed
schools would be Russian-language institutions. The amendments,
however, do no specify the language of instruction. That omission does
not assuage Aram Apatian, one of the leaders of the grassroots group
“We Are Against the Re-Opening of Foreign-Language Schools in
Armenia,” which has called for Minister Ashotian’s resignation.

“I have a Russian-language education and have always experienced
problems with the Armenian language and method of expression,” said
the 48-year-old Apatian. “Can you imagine what will happen if
foreign-language schools -- meeting international standards, as they
say -- are opened? We will go back to Soviet times again; the image of
Armenian schools and our nation will suffer.”

The bill is also generating political opposition. The main opposition
Armenian National Congress, headed by the multi-lingual former
president Ter-Petrosian, has termed the proposal “dangerous.”  During
the Soviet era, fluent knowledge of Russian was considered a ticket to
prestigious employment opportunities and a prosperous lifestyle.
Accordingly, Armenian-language schools were deemed undesirable by most
aspiring Armenians.

Minister Ashotian maintains that the proposal has nothing to do with
favoring Russian-language schools over Armenian-language institutions.
The foreign-language schools “will not turn into a network of Russian
schools,” he insisted during a late May news conference. “This will
not be a revival of the Russian- school era.” Knowledge of Russian is
simply a matter of Armenians remaining “competitive” in today’s
marketplace, Ashotian asserted. A 2009 survey conducted by the
Caucasus Research Resource Center in Yerevan reported that just 24.8
percent of 2,555 Armenian respondents identified their knowledge of
Russian as “advanced.”

Despite the role Russia’s economy plays in boosting Armenian trade
figures and providing jobs for labor migrants, the criticism about the
foreign-language schools – including from the government coalition
member Prosperous Armenia Party – continues. There is suspicion that
the government proposed the measure at Moscow’s behest. Armenia has
the friendliest ties of any country in the South Caucasus with the
Kremlin, as evidenced by the hundreds of millions of dollars in
financial assistance that Moscow made available to Yerevan during the
depths of the global financial crisis. Russian companies now control
Armenia’s energy system, and hold substantial investments in its
telecommunications, as well as the mining and petrochemical sectors.

The group opposing foreign-language schools has organized several
large demonstrations in downtown Yerevan that feature posters
declaring “No to Colonialism!” and “Language Is Not Collateral for
Debt.” More than 2,700 individuals have joined the group on
Facebook.“I’m absolutely convinced that this initiative has been
dictated by the Kremlin. This is a continuation of Russia's new
imperialist policy,” said analyst Suren Surenyants, a senior member of
the opposition Republic Party's Political Council. “The opening of
foreign-language schools is a great danger for Armenia’s independence.
It’s dangerous for both national and societal reasons.”

A November 2009 statement by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander
Yakovenko about a push to make Russian an official or international
language throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States is helping
to fuel concern in some corners of Yerevan. Yakovenko noted there
would be no problems with this initiative in Armenia.
At a conference in late 2009 on Russian-language schools in Armenia,
Minister Ashotian declared Russian as “the language of our common
future,” the Newsarmenia.ru website reported. As an illustration of
those sympathies, in 2007 Ashotian issued a CD of Russian-language
songs he had written entitled “Za” or “For.”

Foreign-language schools exist in both Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the
CRRC survey, fewer respondents in both countries described themselves
as having an advanced knowledge of Russian. Nonetheless, many ordinary
Armenians argue that even one foreign-language school could pose a
threat to the viability of their language. Architect Ruben Tarumian,
creator of an Armenian computer font, predicts that opening one such
school could set off a “chain reaction” of others. “If you change the
language, you change the nation as well,” Tarumian said.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/61317

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