Scientists from Kabardino-Balkaria oppose a bill on voluntary study of native languages

On April 23, 30 people of science and culture of Kabardino-Balkaria appealed to the federal authorities and declared the unacceptability for adopting a law on the voluntary training of native languages. The appeal was addressed to the President of the Russian Federation, the Chair of the Government, the Chair of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly, and the Chair of the State Duma.

"At present, there is an unprecedentedly deep crisis in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic related to the state of the national languages: the Circassian (Kabardian) and Balkarian," reports the message published on the website of the Kabardino-Balkarian Regional Human Rights Centre.

"It is widely known that the North-Caucasian languages, along with many others, have been declared by UNESCO as endangered languages," the authors of the appeal note.

"The proposed model of 'voluntary' education means a return to elective education, which once led to a sharp degradation of native languages," states the appeal.

The authors of the appeal note that the bill proposed by the Duma violates the constitutional rights of the peoples of Kabardino-Balkaria and other national republics of the Russian Federation.

"On that basis, we categorically object to the adoption of the bill. We demand to immediately remove it from the agenda, since, in addition to the destructiveness aimed at the final levelling out of the national languages, it is also able to seriously destabilize the social and political situation of the multinational state," the message reads.