BEIRUT -- Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani endorsed Monday new legislation that establishes five official languages for the largely autonomous region. Tarek Jawhar, media adviser to the Kurdistan parliament, made the announcement in a news conference. According to the official website of Irbil governorate, the first article of the law designates Kurdish and Arabic as Kurdistan's official languages, while the second article allows three others -- for the Turkmen, Assyrian and Armenian communities -- to become official languages in administrative units where these communities form the majority of the population. Kurdistan's Parliament ratified the law in late October.