The website of the Parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has posted draft legislative amendments, signed by the leader of Karabakh Araik Harutyunyan, on recognition of the Russian language as an official language of NKR
Why did the Karabakh authorities decide to take such a step?
“When Nagorno-Karabakh was part of the Azerbaijani SSR, there was a clear lack of Armenian schools. Therefore a large proportion of the population received education in Russian, which was actively used in the public sphere. Moreover, Russian is unified and understood by all, while Armenian is fragmented into many dialects, varying from one territory to another. Therefore, a situation has developed in which many people in Artsakh have a good command of Russian as their second native language, while continuing to speak in their dialect at home”, – Armenian political analyst Aleksandr Iskandaryan told VZGLYAD newspaper.
However, according to the political scientist, the prevalence of Russian language in NKR is not the main reason for plans to recognize it as an official language. “First of all, it is connected with changes in the political situation in the region. There are Russian peacekeeping forces on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. If before Karabakh’s security was ensured by the Karabakh army itself and Armenia, now it is ensured to a great extent by Russia. This, of course, plays its role,” the interlocutor underlined.
“Moreover, in Karabakh the attitude towards Russia has always been very favourable. Its culture and language have never been politicised, as is the case in Georgia or Ukraine, which means that the NKR can look forward to further close cooperation with Russia”, – Iskandaryan concluded.