Armenian schools to offer more Turkish language courses

YEREVAN

Interest in Turkish is growing in Armenia as the language has started to be offered as an elective in more high schools, Türkiye’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing the Armenian officials.

According to the Armenian Education, Science, Culture and Sports Ministry, around 400 schools in the country have applied to include neighboring countries’ languages in their curriculum as elective courses.

The majority of these schools have opted for Turkish. However, due to a limited number of Turkish teachers, not all applications can be implemented immediately.

If teacher capacity is increased, Turkish education could start in more schools in the short-term.

Currently, Turkish has been taught as an elective in around 10 schools for several years.

Officials expect this number to gradually rise in the coming years as interest grows and the teacher shortage is addressed.

They also said that Armenia aims to raise awareness of different cultures and languages through this initiative.

Armenian education minister Janna Andreasyan previously stated that some schools offer regional languages such as Turkish, Persian, Azerbaijani and Georgian, adding, “The greatest interest is in the Turkish language.”

She also highlighted the shortage of Turkish teachers, noting that due to current conditions, schools’ demands cannot be fully met.

Türkiye and Armenia have recently entered a normalization process in their relations.

While Ankara and Yerevan are conducting talks on reopening border crossings, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan said last week at a conference that the normalization process is “on the right path.”

“As I said earlier, establishing diplomatic ties, opening borders are just matter of time. The issue is the speed,” Pashinyan underlined.

Ankara and Yerevan have signed an agreement for opening the border for the passage of third country nationals and diplomatic passport holders, but it has not become operational.