RSC Director Richard Giragosian assessed the recent escalation of clashes in an interview on January 23 with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Armenian Service. Giragosian noted “the significant expansion of the recent clashes, in terms of both intensity and geography, noting the fighting went far beyond Nagorno Karabakh to include the Armenian-Azerbaijani border proper.” Stressing that “this latest escalation began well before this past month, but warned that unlike the past, when ceasefire violations were measured by the number of shots fired, this escalation is now dangerously defined by casualties nearly every day.”

RSC Project Coordinator Haykak Arshamyan appeared in an interview on the Shoghakat TV station on January 22, offering an analysis of Armenian national identity. Hosted by Anna Sargsyan, the interview, entitled “Totalitarian System and Man: National Identity,” included the opinions of anthropologist Mkhitar Gabrielyan. For his part, Dr. Arshamyan noted that Armenian national identity was “national in form, and socialistic in content,” as “this was how the system and the formation of national identity would relate to each other as forced by the Soviet totalitarian system.” Arshamyan then focused on how national identity was transformed in the totalitarian and post-totalitarian period.

In light of recent developments, the Regional Studies Center (RSC) held a special closed briefing on Wednesday, 21 January, to assess the implications of the recent tragedy involving the murder of an Armenian family by a rogue Russian soldier stationed at the Russian military base in Gyumri.

In a series of articles, RSC Director Richard Giragosian offered his assessment of the crisis in Armenian-Russian relations in the wake of the tragic murder of an Armenian family by a Russian soldier stationed at the Russian military base in Gyumri.

In cooperation with our Georgian partner organization, the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC), the Regional Studies Center (RSC) held a joint discussion panel on 5 December entitled, “Regional Divergence: The European Union and the Eurasian Union.” Hosted by the Open Society Institute Georgia Foundation (OSGF), the discussion was moderated by OSGF Executive Director Keti Khutsishvili and featured welcoming remarks by Nino Evgenidze, the Executive Director of the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC), followed by presentations by RSC Director Richard Giragosian and EPRC Senior Research Advisor Giorgi Bakradze.