Opposition Mounts to Proposed Foreign-Language Schools in Armenia

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.