PM promises study, promotion of Abkhaz language on national date
The head of the government noted the Abkhaz language was protected by the constitution alongside the Georgian and was an “integral part” of the “unified linguistic treasure”. Photo: Government Administration
Tweet 
Share
Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Thursday said the government would work to study and promote the Abkhaz language in comments marking the national date of Abkhaz Language Day.
In his comments on the date, the PM said he was extending congratulations to “everyone for whom the protection and the preservation of our common wealth - the Abkhaz language and cultural identity - is an important value and responsibility”.
The head of the government noted the Abkhaz language was protected by the constitution alongside the Georgian and was an “integral part” of the “unified linguistic treasure”.
Garibashvili also stressed his government would continue to take “effective steps” for the scientific study, development and promotion of the language.
“This effort acquires special importance in the conditions of the occupation of the Abkhazian region and the intensified Russification on the ground, which today, more than ever, puts the Abkhaz language in danger of disappearing”, he noted.
It is extremely important to make a united effort with our Abkhaz compatriots to save and preserve the unique Abkhaz language, to get more young people interested in learning it, and to make Abkhaz the language of further strengthening ties and new opportunities in the process of building peace and trust”, he concluded.
Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language with estimated 90,000 native speakers in Georgia’s occupied region of Abkhazia, while in total about 610,000 people are speaking Abkhazo-Adyghian languages in various parts of the world, particularly in the Georgia’s Autonomous Republic of Adjara, in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Germany and the United States.
Abkhaz has been placed on the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who recently attended an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of UNESCO, has called on the organisation to establish an international Day of Caucasian Languages, which also would include Abkhaz.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has congratulated the public on Abkhaz Language Day earlier today. Garibashvili emphasised that the Abkhaz language along with Georgian ‘is protected by the Constitution of Georgia and the state has a special obligation to preserve and develop it.’
Students of all grades in Georgia’s Russian-occupied, mostly ethnic-Georgian-inhabited Gali district will have to receive secondary education in Russian, the de facto Abkhaz Education Ministry has decided.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated at today’s governmental meeting that the Georgian Dream government is creating a state program to protect and develop the Abkhazian language, the language of the Georgian region which is now occupied by Russia.