Under the program of support and development of multilingual environment and cultural diversity, the UN observes Russian Language Day on June 6, the birthday of great Russian poet A. S. Pushkin. One of the goals of this program is to support equal rights of all six official languages of the UN – English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French.
The decision of language days has been made by the Department of Public Information (currently the Department of Global Communications) on the threshold of the World Native Language Day, which is observed on February 21 each year at the initiatives of the UNESCO.
The goal of the UN language days is to enhance the awareness about history, culture and development of each of official UN languages among the personnel of the Organization. Each language has an opportunity to find its own approach and develop own program of events including invitation of famous poets and writers and development of information and thematic materials.
Cultural events may also include performance of music and literary works, contests, exhibitions, lectures, stage plays and performance of art and cultural personnel, days of national cuisine and concerts of folk bands, demonstration of movies and express classes for those who wish to learn another official language of the UN.
Literary creativity of great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin is priceless. His works unites people of all ages, religions, nationalities and are translated to dozens of the world languages. In Turkmenistan special attention is paid to study of foreign languages including Russian language, which is a language on international communication in Turkmenistan.
It worth to mention that the memory and creativity of Alexander Pushkin in also honored. Turkmen – Russian secondary school as well as Ashgabat State Russian Drama Theatre are named after A. S. Pushkin in Turkmenistan.
Ashgabat also has A.S. Pushkin Monument on the street named after him. The monument was installed in one of picturesque parts of Ashgabat in 1911. Every year, the monument becomes a place of flower laying ceremony on the poet’s birthday.
Russian language is a also a discipline, which is mandatory for study in Turkmen schools. Russian language is learned as a foreign language together with English in all schools of Turkmenistan as well as in Russian groups in kndergartens.
When coming to Turkmenistan, Russian speaking people do not feel any language barrier as the majority of local people easily speak Russian. Turkmenistan has welcomed and support the decision of proclamation of 2023 in the CIS as a Year of Russian language and a language of international communication.
Turkmenistan’s teachers were repeatedly prize winner of the Pushkin Russian Language Teacher Contest. The teachers of Russian language and literature receive education of three higher educational institutes – Turkmen State University, Turkmen National Institute of World Languages and State Pedagogic Institute.
Newspapers and magazines including of “Neutral Turkmenistan” central newspaper, are published in the country in Russian language. Profile newspapers and magazines, which have Russian version, are also published. In addition to Turkmen languages, news programs on local TV channels are translated into Russian and English languages. International TV channel “Turkmenistan” broadcasts its programs in seven languages, including in Russian. The State Publishing Service also produces books and study books in Russian language.
Russian language occupies special place in the government and public sphere of Turkmenistan. Russian website and versions of official websites of high government authorities, Russian version of the portal of the government services of Turkmenistan are available in the country.
Janmammed GULAMOV
