Anti-Russian spirits on rise in Armenia

/By Azernews/

By Nazrin Gadimova

A chauvinism movement seems to proper Armenia as anti-Russian language hysterics gains momentum in the country.

After the CSTO Council’s meeting in Yerevan the Armenian officials expressed their dissatisfaction with speeches made in Russian without interpretation in the state language.

Given that the Russian is the official language of the CSTO, all these statements seem to be extremely ridiculous and absurd. Moreover, in order to allow Armenian nationalists to unburden their hearts, numerous reports have emphasized that the event will be held in Russian.

The state officials sharply criticized Eduard Sharmazanov, deputy chair of the parliament, who represented Armenia at the above-mentioned meeting for making his speeches in Russian. In response to criticism, Sharmazanov stressed that the CSTO events differ from bilateral meetings.

Tevan Poghosyan, a member of Heritage faction, could not hide his nationalist stance, demanding to insist upon the simultaneous translation into Armenian, while the Armenian MPs were obliged to make statements in Armenian during the meeting.

Armenia is mono-ethnic country where chauvinism and nationalism transmitted from mother's milk.

Armenian intolerance is well known far beyond its borders. Even Russia, its great-power ally, which have repeatedly faced with the Armenian harassment.

Fighting use of Russian language has intensified in Armenia, even gaining an aggressive tone with each passing year. Opponents to use of the Russian, apparently, believe that getting rid of the Russian language will help them to get free from dependence on the ‘big brother’.

The Russian language was not treated very well in this country even during the Soviet period. It is not surprising that after the collapse in 1991, Armenia began crusade against the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia.

After some time, Moscow has brought these nationalists back to earth. Thus, in 2002, immediately after official meetings, Armenia was forced to open Russian-speaking school sectors.

However, these classes seemed to pose a hazard to ‘national identity’ of the 'great' nation, pushing Armenians to forbid their children to study in the Russian-speaking schools.

What is interesting is ‘tolerant’ Armenia with a population of 2.9 million people is home to only 5,000 ethnic Russians and this figure is greatly exaggerated.

In 2014, Armenia and Russia witnessed a row that took place during the meeting of the Armenian-Russian parliamentary friendship club. Dmitry Kiselyov, director general of the Russia Today news agency, accused Armenia of suppressing the Russian culture.

"There are no Russian schools in Yerevan, Russian culture is secondary and this is too dangerous," Kiselyov stressed.

These statements provoked a strong reaction of the Armenian establishment – everyone was trying to accuse him of unfair treatment with Armenia.

Now similar accusations rained on Sharmazanov, who ‘dared to speak Russian’ at the meeting of the CSTO Council.

It is noteworthy that no other member of the CSTO than Armenia holds such a disaffection with regard to the Russian language. Noteworthy, all of these countries are more developed and economically stronger than Armenia, which is dramatically concerned on preservation of national identity.