Kyrgyz civil servants obliged to speak Kyrgyz - bill

A bill on the state language, which imposes restrictions on civil servants who do not speak Kyrgyz, passed the third reading at a plenary meeting of the Kyrgyz parliament on May 31.

Sixty-nine deputies voted for the constitutional bill, Interfax reports.

The state language bill lays down a legal basis for the use of the Kyrgyz language, implementation of the language policy, and duties of state and local authorities to create conditions for their development.

The bill lists categories of persons who must be fluent in the state language at the intermediate level (B1) and be able to use this language while performing their duties. These are state and municipal employees, deputies, military personnel, judges, heads and employees of educational establishments irrespective of their form of ownership, heads and employees of state and municipal healthcare establishments, teachers, researchers, and some others.

Half of television and radio companies' content must be in Kyrgyz, and Kyrgyz versions of websites must not contain less information than versions in other languages.

By the constitution, Kyrgyz is the state language of Kyrgyzstan, while Russian is the official language.