Sukhum/Agency Caucasus – The Abkhazian language was accorded on Friday the status of an official language.
Adopted on November
*All public institutions as well as organizations will go with Abkhazian as the standard language of communication.
* The state will ensure that all ethnic groups in Abkhazia will have the freedom to use their own languages.
* Public officers, deputies and local authorities must have proficiency in the official language.
* The state will ensure that the official language is taught at schools, developed and rendered functional, and preserved socially, economically, legally and politically.
* The official language will get financial support with the help of certain programs.
* Educational institutions will adopt an education system in Abkhazian; Abkhazian philologists will emerge to create scientific teams of pedagogy. Financial support will be available for future publications of the teaching material of Abkhazian as the official language.
* The state will supply all Abkhazians with the opportunity to learn the official language.
* Abkhazian will become the medium of instruction. The Abkhazian Republic will assure its citizens the ease of using Russian as the second medium of instruction. All public as well as private institutions of education available in the Republic of Abkhazia will have Avbkhazian taught to students.
* Graduates of middle school, high school, vocational schools and universities will take a test in the official language.
* Scientific studies will be defended either in Abkhazian or Russian.
* Senior officials of the government will have Abkhazian as the official language of communication, while both Abkhazian and Russian will be available as the standard languages. Bills and motions will be submitted to the parliament both in Abkhazian and Russian.
* Meetings that involve the participation of Abkhazian president, parliamentary meetings and cabinet meetings will be conducted in Abkhazian. Talks will later be translated in both languages.
* Bills adopted by the president or the cabinet, or in the parliament and will be published both in Abkhazian and Russian. The original language for bills will, however, be Abkhazia.
* Elections and referendums will be conducted in both languages. The ballots will also appear both in Abkhazian and Russian. Other relevant papers will appear in both languages, too.
* Abkhazian will be the language to use in studies by national organizations and institutions. Russian may be used as well for this purpose if Abkhazian cannot be used.
* Applications, requests or petitions to public institutions and organizations will be typed in Abkhazian or Russian. Responses will also appear in both languages.
* Official papers will be typed in Abkhazian and Russian, both.
* The news media companies will have Abkhazian as their official languages. Two third of what appears in state publications will have to be set in Abkhazian. Half of what appears in private publications, except for different print media, will have to be set in Abkhazian.
* The state will assist organizations, whether official or not, to have publications in Abkhazian.
* Two third of all television and radio programs will be covered in Abkhazian.
* Foreign films will be dubbed or subtitled into Abkhazian.
* Geographical names, typographical signs, scripts and traffic signs will all be set in Abkhazian. However, there will be times when such things will appear in Russian or English. But, neither Russian nor English typings will be larger than Abkhazian. Geographical names and other proper nouns will not be translated into other languages. The cabinet will have the power to decide where to use Russian and English.
* Studies on foreign countries will be set both in Abkhazian and the language of those foreign countries.
* The state organizations will check for compliance with regulations that concern the use of Abkhazian as the official language. ÖZ/FT
