Burjanadze Speaks of Importance of Official Language

Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said that the authorities should spare no efforts to teach the Georgian language to citizens of non-Georgian ethnicity.

Burjanadze was speaking at the parliamentary session on April 14, which marks Mother Language Day in Georgia, as on this day 28 years ago thousands rallied in Tbilisi to protest against the Soviet authorities’ proposed law to replace Georgian with Russian as the official language in the then-Soviet Republic. The draft never took effect as a result of the protests.

Nino Burjanadze said that the Georgian language “should become a factor of unification, rather than a factor of separation.”

“We should also respect the Abkhaz and Ossetian languages, as well as other languages which are spoken in Georgia… The Abkhaz language has special status and I am sure that we will need to learn at least a little Abkhaz,” Burjanadze said. Abk

The Georgian Constitution says that along with Georgian, Abkhaz is an official language on the territory of Abkhazia.

“I hope we will be united around common language and common values,” Burjanadze added.