YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS. The Parliament of Artsakh has adopted today the bill on making changes and amendments to the Law on Language according to which the Russian language has been granted with an official status in Artsakh.

The bill was approved with 27 votes in favor, 0 vote against and 2 abstentions.

The bill has been submitted to the Parliament at the initiative of lawmakers.

Armenian will remain as the only state language in the Republic of Artsakh, and Russian receives a status of an official language in parallel with Armenian.

“Given the historic memory of cultural, military, economic relations between Artsakh and Russia and the fact that Russian serves as the second language for communication for many residents of Artsakh, we highlight re-valuing the new-quality relations and forming new agenda. In this context, we attach importance to the increase of the status of the Russian language which will create necessary conditions for deepening the cooperation in all areas and will contribute to the development of relations in legal framework in the future”, the authors of the bill said, adding: “The long-term presence of the Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh and the necessity of jointly solving multiple social and communication problems, the cooperation in construction, healthcare, education and science sectors require to re-value the role of the Russian language”.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan