YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–The political representative of the Executive Council–Armenian Revolutionary Federation–member of Parliament–Vahan Hovanessian considers it necessary that amendmen’s concerning national minorities be made to the Constitution. According to him both the president and the Parliament want amendmen’s to be made to the Constitution. Speaking at a seminar on national minorities held October 2–Hovanessian stated that the ARF parliamentary faction assumes the responsibility to represent the national minorities’ interests in Parliament before the amendmen’s to the Constitution are made.
Representatives of different national minorities stressed the need for establishing a government structure to deal with the problems of national minorities in Armenia. Those present also pointed out problems of establishing cultural centers–press organs etc.
Addressing the problem of the Russian language as a language of international communication–the representative of the "Harmony" international center of Russian culture–Bella Yesajanian pointed out the need for amendmen’s to the Law on the Language which–according to her–was adopted on the anti-Russian tide. She said that special attention should be paid to the study of the Russian language in higher schools–as the greater part of scientific and technical literature was published in the Russian language. The issue of state-run Russian-language schools which would be financed by Russia was also raised at the seminar.
The seminar was organized by the ARF with the participation of the Center of Iranian Studies. Attending the seminar were representatives of 19 organizations.
