Days of Russian Word held in Nagorno-Karabakh

Within the framework of the Days of Russian Word, under the motto "Russian without accent", the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) has held contests, poetry parties and seminars for teachers.

Since 2012, the campaign has been held at the republic's scale, a source from the NKR's Ministry of Education told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Narine Agabalyan, the NKR's Minister of Education, has noted that in the Soviet years, when "the 'Azerbaijaniization' policy the Karabakh population was enforced," the Russian language became a sort of defence against assimilation.

Ruzanna Avakyan, an activist of the NGO of NKR's refugees in Stepanakert, has noted that in the NKR a large part of the population never considered Russian as a foreign language.

Ayk Khanumyan, an NKR's MP, has called the campaign "an exclusively cultural event." At the same time, he does not treat the Days of Russian Word as a "confession to love" for Russia. According to his story, polls show that "confidence in Russia is declining."

Tigran Grigoryan, a political analyst, believes that the Russian language is "certainly an instrument for promoting Russia's imperial interests." He treats the Days of Russian Word as a political action.

"The Russian language has long ago lost its importance and will cease to be even the language of regional communication in the near future," Mr Grigoryan has stated.