Armenian Linguist Warns of Harking Back to Soviet Era if Russian Giv

Armenian Linguist Warns of Harking Back to Soviet Era if Russian Given
Special Status

11.23.2013 01:32 epress.am

“Giving any status to any language [other than Armenian] in Armenia
would mean trampling on state language rights as enshrined in the RA
Constitution,” said linguist David Gyurjinyan, in conversation with
Epress.am, commenting on talk of the Russian language being granted
special status in Armenia.

“Whether it be Russian, English, Persian, or any other language, the
question of status in the territory of the Republic of Armenia is
impossible, and talk on this issue in international agencies has
already moved to another plane,” he said.

Gyurjinyan is concerned that Armenia is under threat by what happened
in the Soviet era, when officially Armenian was the state language of
Soviet Armenia, but there was an unwritten rule whereby a significant
portion of institutions wrote in Russian and preference was given to
job seekers having a Russian education.

The linguist is convinced that robust and powerful intellectuals, who
must now not remain silent, are needed to fight the issue.

“Why aren’t university lecturers and scientists at academic
institutions speaking up? We must demonstrate a civic position [duty].
Representatives of Armenian studies are also silent, as if it doesn’t
interest them. The silence is due to the fact that people have
different calculations: one expects a position; another, a medal; and
the third wants to be under the government’s wing. Yet another harbors
hopes and decides not to suddenly be perceived as being in the
opposition. However, this is not a matter of not being opposition, but
a matter of the position of an Armenian, a citizen of the Republic of
Armenia. And those so-called intellectuals should not be afraid. By
the way, fear too is a Soviet relic,” he concluded.

Photo from David Gyurjinyan’s Facebook page.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress