Strasbourg, 27.02.2025 – In an evaluation adopted on 19 November 2024 and published today, the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages notes “structured and comprehensive” financial support for two languages concerned: Cypriot Maronite Arabic and Armenian. Government support includes language learning, teaching activities, school infrastructure, and cultural institutions. 
The report – reflecting the status of regional or minority languages in the country as of June 2024 – also praises consultation of the state authorities with language speakers and their representatives in the House of Parliament as “regular and effective.” It acknowledges the Cypriot government focus on raising awareness of the Armenians and Maronites, their history, culture and languages within Cypriot society. Western Armenian, the protected language for Armenians in Cyprus, has been taught at various education levels, with efforts to expand instruction at upper secondary levels. 
However, despite such government support and preservation efforts to revitalise Cypriot Maronite Arabic, the Committee of Experts raises serious concerns over its teaching, stressing that the language is “in danger of extinction”. Due to the lack of trained teachers, the language is taught only at the primary level with limited hours. The report thus calls for more urgent measures to ensure the survival and transmission of the language. 
Since previous monitoring, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers had recommended Cyprus “to provide teacher training for Armenian and Cypriot Maronite Arabic” as a matter of priority. During the on-the-spot visit for this report, the Committee of Experts learned that teacher shortage persists, despite that training sessions are organised and are fully financed by the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth. Addressing the shortage of trained teachers of Cypriot Maronite Arabic is urgent to increase the teaching hours of the language and to introduce its teaching during the morning classes.
The Committee of Experts commends the scientific research programme of the University of Cyprus that aims at preserving both Armenian and Cypriot Maronite Arabic languages through creating an Oral Tradition Archive, with potential for further academic development and could be seen as an opportunity to develop a comprehensive teacher training programme. To achieve results, immediate and long-term collaboration between government authorities and language representatives is “crucial”, according to the report. 
Although the report notes the presence of both languages in the media – such as the radio programme “The Voice of the Maronites” and online Armenian language newspapers – the report calls on the Cypriot authorities to "strengthen the presence of Armenian and Cypriot Arabic Maronite in broadcasting”. For example, there is no regular presence of Armenian, nor Cypriot Maronite Arabic on television. The Committee of Experts recommends state authorities to promote the use of the two protected languages in television and newspapers, both online and printed and develop media offer for children and youth. It also encourages state authorities and the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation to reach out to children and youth in designing such programmes.
The 7th evaluation report of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is based on the information provided by governmental and non-governmental sources, including that obtained during its visit to Cyprus in June 2024. 
The evaluation report has been published together with comments from the authorities. A summary of the evaluation report is also available in Greek.