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<h1 class="gmail-title gmail-left-sidebar-title gmail-js-title">Armenian Minister Quells Fears of Russian Language Expansion</h1>
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Sep 26, 2017 — 06:40
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<div class="gmail-update"> — Update: Sep. 26 2017 — 11:36</div>
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<p>Following an uproar over the Culture Ministry’s decision
to bolster Russian language programs in Armenian schools, Armenia’s
Education Minister said that Russian will remain a foreign language
in Armenia.</p><p>“The only official language in Armenia is and will
remain the Armenian language, since we are an independent, sovereign
state,” Levon Mkrtchyan <a href="http://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/4589152">told</a> the state-run TASS news agency on Monday. “This is an axiomatic truth, all other languages are foreign.”</p><p>Mkrtchyan’s
comments came in the wake of an ongoing controversy after the Armenian
Culture Ministry published its plan on Sept. 11 to adopt a new policy
that would improve Russian-language education in Armenian schools.</p><p>The
Ministry’s announcement was reportedly met with heavy criticism over
fears the policy would threaten the Armenian language’s status.</p><p>In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Armenian activist David Sanasaryan <a href="https://rus.azatutyun.am/a/28742787.html">said</a> that Russia has always been clear in its intentions to spread Russian throughout post-Soviet countries.</p><p>Armenian
officials, the activists said, “speak about the indispensability of the
Armenian language, but [their actions] start to subvert, to weaken the
positions of the Armenian language.”</p><p>Since the collapse of the
Soviet Union, the number of Russian speakers has decreased by about
50 million, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma Committee for Education
and Science Vyacheslav Nikonov was <a href="http://www.interfax.ru/russia/576720">cited</a> as saying by the Interfax news agency on Aug. 28.</p>
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<a href="https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-language-losing-out-of-english-hegemony-says-official-58779" class="gmail-link">
<span>Russian Language on the Decline Thanks to English, Says Officia</span>
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<p>To counter the decline, Nikonov<a href="http://www.interfax.ru/russia/576720"> called</a>
for an expansion of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and an increase
in educational programs abroad. Armenia is one of five countries
belonging to the EEU.</p><p>Despite the Russian language’s widespread use in Armenia, Russian “has not had any official status so far,” Mkrtchyan added.</p><p>The
minister stressed the importance of the measure by highlighting that
Russian is the most commonly-spoken language in Armenia, is the language
of the EEU, and the language of Armenia’s scientific institutions.</p><p><a href="https://themoscowtimes.com/news/armenian-culture-minister-quells-fears-of-russian-language-hegenomy-59039">https://themoscowtimes.com/news/armenian-culture-minister-quells-fears-of-russian-language-hegenomy-59039</a><br></p>
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