Diaspora Armenians are speaking in Armenian less and less, and in this sense, the preservation of Western Armenian is at risk.

This is what Head of the State Language Inspectorate of the RA Ministry of Education and Science Sergo Yeritsyan said during a February 20 press conference, according to Artsakhpress.

“Only 10 percent of Armenians speak in Armenian in France, which has quite a large population of Armenians. There are more Armenians in the Near East and Middle East speaking in Armenian than Armenians in Europe because since the Armenian communities in the Near East and Middle East countries are smaller in number. There are only Armenian Sunday schools in the Diaspora, and it’s clear that Armenian children can’t have good command of the mother language since they only attend Armenian language classes once a week,” he said.

In 1999, the UNESCO declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day in order to acknowledge the rights to mother languages and contribute to the use of those languages.