YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The official and state language of Armenia is Armenian, the Armenian language is one of the fundamental values of the Armenian independence and the “Law of Language” is not subject to any change, minister of education and science Levon Mkrtchyan told reporters in response to a question regarding the possibility of adopting the Russian language as second official language. The minister went on to request the reporters not to ask similar questions, saying : “Such question cannot exist in the Republic of Armenia”.

“I would like to note for once and for all. Armenian is the official state language of Armenia, our language is one of the fundamental values of our independence and the “Law on Language” is not subject to change. The second issue is development of foreign languages, because if we want to have an area having scientific-educational potential, result, the citizens of our country must have knowledge of foreign languages in addition to the excellent knowledge of the mother tongue”, he said.

In his words, any foreign official can express any opinion, but Armenia has its own legislation, which functions and isn’t subject to change.

“There is no issue of giving any status to a foreign language, there is an issue of deepening the knowledge. The Russian language has the same status in Armenia as any other foreign language. In the case of Russian language, we have an important field, since we are located within the EEU, the same military-technical cooperation field, where Russian is the language of intergovernmental communication. This increases the necessity of Russian language knowledge in Armenia. It is necessary to deepen Russian language, but giving it a status is ruled out”, he said.

Recently, Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation to UNESCO, Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova announced that Russia must make efforts to give a special status to the Russian language in post-Soviet states.