GEORGIA TO LAUNCH LANGUAGE TRAINING COURSE FOR NATIONAL MINORITIES
ARMENPRESS
Jul 18, 2007
TBILISI, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS: Bad command of the Georgian language
should not become "an insuperable barrier" for ethnic minorities
to enroll in Georgia’s universities, Georgian president Saakashvili
said today.
According to Georgian news agencies, while speaking at a government
session Saakashvili said a special state program envisages bringing
hundred ethnic Armenians and hundred ethnic Azerbaijanis from
Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli regions, respectively, at
preparatory courses, which will help them to then enroll in the
universities.
He said it was not a fault of ethnic minorities that they do not
speak Georgian well.
"This is because of the fact that we [the authorities] were not
well-organized… I want to emphasize that the minorities urge us to
teach them the Georgian language," Saakashvili said.
Alluding to the fact that most of ethnic minority youth prefer to
enroll in universities in Armenia, Azerbaijan, or Russia, Saakashvili
said it was very important to create conditions wherein "our citizens
acquire knowledge not abroad, but in the capital and other cities
of Georgia.
In its report last year, the Brussels-based think-tank International
Crisis Group outlined the inability to speak the state language as
"the minorities’ biggest problem.