The Day of the Russian Language at UN is marked in the beginning of June, to coincide with the birthday of Alexander Pushkin (June 6), the greatest Russian poet. Students were singing songs and reading Puskin’s poetry. Dafina Gercheva, the UN Resident Coordinator said: “I am happy to see so many young people in the audience today! It is important that Armenians are learning Russian, which will help them to open the borders and learn more about the world around, will help them to be citizens of the world. We exist in a multilingual world where the languages we speak, or read, or write, affect the way we think and act.” Armen Darbinyan, the Rector of the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, spoke about opportunities to study Russian in Armenia and about an important role which the Russian Language is playing in spreading the message of the UN in the world. The Ambassador of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, spoke about the use of the Russian language in the UN and called Armenian youth to further study this language. The event was organized by the UN Department of Public Information and the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University in Armenia also supported by Embassies of the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan and RosSotrudnichestvo. It was conducted in the framework of the Plan for Co-operation between the UNDPI and the University. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish are the six official languages of the UN. In 2010 the UN Department of Public Information in New York has announced the launch of “Language Days at the United Nations”, an initiative which seeks to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity. The UN Department of Public Information Yerevan Office jointly with its partners is also commemorating these six official languages of the United Nations.

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