Yesterday a standing committee on Education and Science of the Armenian parliament with a proportion of 4 “yea” and 3 “nay” votes approved a watered-down version of a controversial government bill that would allow the existence of schools where the main language of instruction is not Armenian. The bill had been strongly criticized by various public and civic groups for the past two months. This bill and in particular its inclusion on the NA agenda besides the civic publicity also has a political context and may serve as regular “litmus-paper” for the discovery of the inter-governmental conflicts. The move, backed only by 4 committee members representing President Serzh Sargsyan’s Republican Party (RPA), paves the way for its adoption, in the first reading, by the full National Assembly next week. The MPs of the Heritage, ARF and Prosperous Armenia factions voted against the bill. The Armenian government has faced a storm of criticism from opposition politicians, media and public figures, including those loyal to the Sargsyan administration, ever since it drafted relevant amendments to Armenia’s laws on education and language in late April. They believe the proposed changes endangers Armenian’s constitutional status as the country’s sole official language. The critics include virtually all members of the presidential Public Council, a panel of prominent political and public figures making policy recommendations to Sargsyan. Despite the support of the RPA members to the bill the NA chairman Hovik Abrahamyan expressed his objections in relation to the bill to be adopted with the current contents proposed by the government. And so it is now up to Abrahamyan’s decision whether the bill will be included in the next week agenda of the National Assembly or it will be moved to the fall session of the NA. Therefore in the near future we may witness quite interesting developments and not only within the coalition.
