Go to Yerablour (the national cemetery & memorial in Armenia to those fallen in war). The most noble among us are buried there. Perhaps many of them had less know­ledge than us, perhaps they would stumble in spea­king Russian & did not know English at all. But they were Armenian. They were Armenian, because they thought in Armenian. Language is first of all a mode of thought, & only subsequently speech. Pick a hundred names at random off the gravestones at Yerablour & then check to see how many had an Armenian education, & how many in another language. The numbers will not deceive.

I am ashamed at having to write such rudimentary things. Read the works by Ludwig Wittgenstein on the philosophy of language & everything will become clear. Isn’t it already understandable, without reading Wittgenstein, that the Armenian “հաց“ (hats) & the Russian “хлеб” (khleb) have the same meaning (“bread”), but they comprehend essentially different things? Isn’t it clear that the Armenian child who grew up on Pushkin’s fables & the one who was reared on Toumanyan’s tales are different Armenians? The claim that a good quality education can only be acquired in a foreign language is false. The one who is willing to learn does learn, & the lazy one seeks excuses to justify his ignorance. If knowledge is not a concern for, say, the National assembly, why ought the student to learn anything? In truth, I am amazed that they yet learn so much. If there were the guarantee of a just competitiveness for knowledge in the market, then each Armenian would know at least three foreign languages.

It is not necessary to cover up the shortcomings of the educational system & the frailty of its leadership in the Armenian World (the copyright of this expression belongs to the prime minister) by relegating the status of the Armenian language to mere household use. It is always easier, of course, to veil one’s ignorance with foreign words or complex terminology. I bear an Armenian education, but I started working by translating from one foreign language to another foreign language. That was what that period of my life demanded.

Armenia is first of all Armenian. Without the Armenian language, there would be no Armenia. There is no need to deny one’s own Homeland, but simply to improve the teaching of foreign languages in all schools. I understand that this is a more challenging task than sacrificing the Armenian language itself.

Ara Papian

Citizen of the Republic of Armenia