The Russian language turns out a “means of race discrimination”

Georgia's Foreign Ministry is dissatisfied with teaching in schools of Abkhazia as all lessons are in Russian which the Ministry equals to race discrimination that supposedly tramples upon the rights of Georgians in Galsky district of Abkhazia.

This accusation was connected with the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Knut Vollebaek's visit to the republic. At his meeting with Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab he acknowledged: the Abkhazian authorities do not prohibit teaching the Georgian language in Glasky district schools. Though teaching itself is in Russian (that concerns all other subjects too) - with Abkhazian or Russian textbooks.

According to Abkhazian president's official site on seeing these schools Vollebaek volunteered to help solving the problem of textbooks in Georgian. "Such an opportunity would help Galsky district citizens to get integrated in the Abkhazian society", - the high commissioner believes.

However Prime Minister rejected the idea as such explaining: "We will not teach children in Galsky district by Georgian textbooks and depend on Georgian educational standards. Georgia keeps being an unfriendly state for Abkhazia".

The European guest's second proposal appeared more interesting to Ankvab. He would not mind having the textbooks published in Russia or Abkhazia translated in Georgian.

What is so wrong about it all, one would ask?

The Georgian Foreign Ministry specifies: "By prohibiting education in the native Georgian language Russian occupational forces as well as the puppet regimes grossly violate the UN convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination", - Rosbalt quotes. And more: supposedly the Russians' ultimate objective is expulsion of remaining Georgians from the conflict areas.

The statement of Georgia's Foreign Ministry was preceded by a message from the Abkhazian government in exile stating that wholesale lots of new textbooks in Russian in compliance with the Russian program are being delivered to the schools of Galsky district. Both facts are seriously corrupting Georgia's history as the Education Ministry of the "legitimate" government stated.

Besides GHN agency reported that "in exchange for dissemination of falsified historic facts" the separatists promised to almost double teachers' salaries.

School textbooks are an old headache for Abkhazia. Right after the 1992-1993 war it adopted Russian educational standards.

But Russian textbooks were very scarce.

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