March 2, the Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport of the Artsakh Republic National Assembly organized parliamentary hearings on the draft law "On Making Amendments and Addenda to the Law on Language".

The hearings were presided over by Aram Harutyunyan, Chair of the Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sports of the Artsakh Republic NA. Co-authors of the bill - Gagik Baghunts, the leader of the "United Motherland" faction, and Metaxe Hakobyan, the deputy of the Artsakh "Justice" faction, made related reports.

Before proceeding with the justification of the bill, Aram Harutyunyan spoke about having a wide public discussion of the bill. According to the justifications provided by the co-authors of the bill, the amendments to the law are based mainly on "taking into account the need for a long-term presence of Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh, the need for joint solution of many social and communication problems, cooperation in the fields of construction, healthcare, education and science." Metaxe Hakobyan welcomed the opinion presented in the open letter of the lecturers of the ArSU faculty of Armenian Language and Literature, where it is proposed to adopt Russian as a working language that can be used in state and other institutions. The co-author assured that the proposal will be discussed and taken into account when developing the final version. Similar proposal was also made by the " Democratic Party of Artsakh " faction.

The hearings were accompanied with questions and answers voiced by MPs and stakeholders.

There were suggestions during the exchange of views to make the wording of the bill clearer, more concrete, with convincing arguments, and to present to the public understandable and comprehensible justifications. Artak Ghulyan, Head of the Language Inspectorate of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Artsakh Republic, welcomed the publicity of such a vital issue as well as the activity of the society and stakeholders and offered to give Russian the status of a language of interethnic communication.

At the end of the hearings Aram Harutyunyan informed that the discussions on the issue will continue in the commission and in wider circles.

The NA President, deputies, representatives of educational institutions, stakeholders, students undergoing training in the NA were present at the hearings.