Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 27 – The announcement
by Armenian Education Minister Levon Mkrtchyan that from now on, the Russian language
will be treated as a foreign language not only means that there is no chance it
will ever be the second state language there as Moscow wants but also that
Armenians now “view Russians foreigners,” a Moscow commentator says.
That is the judgment of Sergey
Aksyonov, a commentator for Svobodnaya pressa, and it suggests an even more
radical and unexpected development is taking place in Armenia than the
much-more-commented upon change in the status of the Russian language in
Ukraine (svpressa.ru/society/article/182116/).
Mkrtchayn stressed that “the only
state language in Armenia is Armenian because we are an independent and
sovereign state. This is axiomatic. And all other languages are foreign.” That doesn’t mean Russian won’t be studied in
schools: At present, it is studied from the second class just as English is
studied from the third.
A major problem, the Armenian
minister said, is that there are not enough qualified instructors in Russian in
Armenia anymore. Consequently, even though the older generation is almost
entirely bilingual in Armenian and Russian, the younger generation often is
more likely to know English than Russian.
In some ways, Moscow brought this
problem on itself by insisting rather heavy-handedly on having Yerevan adopt
Russian as a second state language. Armenians were offended and now have
reacted. But their reaction, Russian
experts say, does not mean that the Russian language and Russians more
generally don’t have a future in Armenia, only that more work is needed.
Yerevan’s readiness to declare
Russian a foreign language, however, does suggest that Armenia like the other
former Soviet republics is gradually moving away from Moscow’s orbit, something
that Russian pressure on even its closest allies in the past may be
accelerating even faster than its aggression against others.
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