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President: "The only official language in Azerbaijan is Azerbaijani and no other language can have official status in Azerbaijan"

27 February 2021 05:44 (UTC +04:00)

"The issue of the official language in Karabakh is a manipulation. At present, it is the manipulation of those who illegally call themselves leaders in that region of Azerbaijan. This can have no effect or consequence. Nagorno-Karabakh does not exist and everyone recognizes it as an integral part of Azerbaijan. I think this is their last breath, this last attempt of that criminal junta regime, as if they are the state," said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the press conference held in a video format for local and foreign journalists, APA reports.

The head of state said that the only official language in Azerbaijan is Azerbaijani and no other language can have official status in Azerbaijan: “At the same time, we do not impose any restrictions on any language. As you know, Russian is widely used in Azerbaijan. Today, unlike in the Soviet era, we have more Russian-language newspapers and websites. We have schools with about 340 Russian sections. How many such schools are there in Armenia? Zero. There is only one school in Armenia for the children of the Russian military contingent there. They even passed a law that Armenian children cannot go to Russian schools. That is, as they say, it is discrimination against their strategic partners. They receive military resources from Russia, all the weapons that we have destroyed, which are worth about 3-5 billion dollars, they bought all this from Russia for free. It was based on a gift or a nail loan agreement. That loan that they will never repay. Look, they are discriminating against such a partner. New legislation has been adopted against Russian TV channels. After the war, they eliminated it a little, in part. They ban the Russian language, they ban Russian-language schools. But look, now that Russian peacekeepers have settled in Karabakh, they suddenly accept Russian as their official language.

As for the future, people who speak different languages in Azerbaijan have all the rights and privileges. They have access to education, all our state universities have Russian departments. Let's take into account that the Armenian community living in those areas can speak Armenian to each other, during the Soviet era, newspapers were published in Armenian in our region, and there were special programs. Like all other languages, Armenian will be protected in Azerbaijan."