Representing the Regional Studies Center (RSC), Dr. Haykak Arshamyan participated in a three-day seminar on the “Integration Processes of Armenia in the Current Geopolitical Environment,” held on 18-20 March in Aghveran, Armenia. The seminar, which was organized by the Yerevan Press Club (YPC) with the support of the Armenian office of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Foundation, included presentations by the head of the European Union Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Antoni Świtalski entitled, “The Process and Perspectives of EU-Armenia Relations,” and by Yerevan Press Club President Boris Navasardian, who presented a report on “The Information Component of the Armenian Integration Processes.” Arshamyan was also a speaker on a panel devoted to the latter topic.

As part of a group of a dozen Armenian civil society organizations, RSC Director Richard Giragosian met on 16 March with a visiting delegation from the European Commission and the Human Rights Strategy and Policy Implementation Division of the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS).

As part of our research and analysis, the Regional Studies Center (RSC) has initiated an “Armenian Media Monitoring” effort, focusing on political and economic developments and based on a daily survey of Armenian print and electronic media outlets. This is our third publicly available edition, proving a brief summary of articles covering the period of 1-15 March 2016.

The RSC offers a summary compilation of the most significant articles, translated into English and produced every two weeks.

On 14 March, the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent think tank in Yerevan, convened its latest in a series of special “Focus Groups.” In coordination with a visiting group of graduate students from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington (GW) University, one of the leading graduate schools in international affairs in the United States, this latest Focus Group was focused on a discussion of one main theme: “Reformulating Western Policy toward Russia in the Post-Soviet Space.” The GW group was visiting Armenia as part of their Capstone Research project, which consists of three country-specific case studies: Armenia, Estonia and Ukraine.

Meeting in Yerevan on 11 March, RSC Director Richard Giragosian briefed a visiting delegation from the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on recent developments in domestic Armenian politics and trends in Armenian foreign policy, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the outlook for Armenia-Turkey “normalization,” as well as developments in Armenia-EU relations.