The bill cites Karabakh’s history of “cultural, military and economic links” with Russia. It says that Russian has remained many Karabakh Armenians’ “second language of communication” since the Soviet breakup and that giving it an official status would help to deepen ties with Russia “in all spheres.”
The bill was drafted by legislators affiliated with the Free Fatherland party of Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, and two other parties represented in Karabakh’s parliament. The three groups together control the majority of parliament seats.
“We are simply enabling the use of Russian as an official language in all circles,” Free Fatherland’s Aram Harutiunian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday.
“We are not replacing Armenian with Russian or vice versa,” he said.
Another local lawmaker, Metaksia Hakobian, warned that her opposition Justice party will back the bill only if it is amended to uphold the supremacy of the Armenian language. She said its current version contradicts the Karabakh constitution which declares Armenian the unrecognized republic’s sole “state language.”
Harutiunian denied any contradiction. Still, he said he and other authors of the bill are open to discussing changes in the text.
Russia’s presence in Karabakh increased dramatically after Moscow brokered a ceasefire agreement that stopped the six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10. The deal led to the deployment of about 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops in Karabakh as well as along a land corridor connecting the disputed territory to Armenia.
The peacekeepers have helped tens of thousands of Karabakh Armenian civilians, who fled the fighting, to return to their homes.