President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov responded to the statement by the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov.
In an interview with Kabar state news agency he explained that the recently signed Law on the State Language does not discriminate against the Russian language. According to the head of state, on the contrary, the document notes the official status of the Russian language.
«We have the official status of the Russian language in the Constitution. It will be preserved,» he added.
Sadyr Japarov stressed that the norms of the new law would not be applied to doctors and teachers, as they do not belong to the category of «civil servants».
«Imagine, when hiring teachers of the Russian language, Russian-speaking personnel would be rejected because they do not speak the Kyrgyz language. We need Kyrgyz, but Russian is also important, because you can’t work in CIS countries without it. When traveling to China, Arab states and Europe, we also speak Russian. We just want to develop our language. Look at how deputies and civil servants speak. Half in Kyrgyz, half in Russian. No one speaks the state language completely. We always mix it up. That is why we intend to develop the two languages in parallel. If necessary, let’s learn English, French and Chinese. The more languages a person speaks, the better,» he said.
Recall, at a meeting with the heads of Russian non-profit organizations in Moscow, Sergei Lavrov said that difficult processes were underway, including in the CIS. In particular, certain laws are adopted in Central Asia. For example, the Kyrgyz Republic adopted a law on the state language.
According to the head of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, «this is not entirely democratic.» He told how «attempts are made to infringe on the Russian language in a number of situations.»
