unpackingarmenianstudies

What do Europe’s reactions to this war seem to be saying about what Europe will or won’t tolerate when it comes to aggression and war? Has Europe’s vision of a united Europe changed irrevocably? Will small countries like Armenia, Moldova and Georgia now be faced with even starker choices between Russia and the West? How will Europe’s relationships with the countries of the Caucasus change and can those changes benefit societies in the Caucasus? Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian speaks with Dr. Vicken Cheterian, writer, journalist, scholar and author of War and Peace in the Caucasus, and a lecturer at Webster University Geneva.

This is Episode 11 of the limited series called Ukraine, Armenia & War.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

USC Professor Robert English studies the USSR, Russia and Eastern Europe. Here, he discusses the perceptions and policies of the other former Soviet republics in light of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, with Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian. Russia’s intentions and possible encroachment (military, political and economic) on the other 13 republics, what might follow a cessation of hostilities, limited room to maneuver bilaterally with Russia, and the deepening of enmities exacerbated by this war, as well as similarities in use of violence against close populations – all of these impact Armenia, Georgia and their stability, security and sovereignty.

This is Episode 9 of the limited series called Ukraine, Armenia & War.

Professor Ervand Abrahamian of City University of New York expresses his concerns about possible ramifications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Iran. In a conversation with Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian, they talk about Iran’s relations with all of the regional actors – Georgia, Armenia, the Caucasus, Turkey - in light of the war and its possible outcomes. Is this a return to the Tsarist Russian vision for the neighborhood?

This is Episode 8 of the limited series called Ukraine, Armenia & War.

Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian speaks with Varoujan Avedikian, an attorney and former General Counsel to Armenia’s Central Bank, on the economic and monetary challenges and opportunities immediately resulting from the Ukraine war. Energy and food security, imports and exports, banking and insurance services, are all impacted in expected and unexpected ways.

Armenia’s ambassador to Poland, Samvel Mkrtchian, is on the frontline with incoming refugees, and with an international community intent on finding a solution to the ongoing destruction of a country and a nation. He speaks with Institute Director and his former colleague at Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, Salpi Ghazarian, at length about international politics, power relations, and Armenia’s limited room to maneuver.

This is Episode 6 of the limited series called Ukraine, Armenia & War.

Armenia’s embassy in Ukraine was among the last to leave the capital and move to Lviv, near the western border. Ambassador Vladimir Karapetyan speaks with Institute Director and his former colleague at Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, Salpi Ghazarian, about the complexity of Armenia’s foreign relations and interactions with the diplomatic community in Ukraine; about what the embassy and staff are doing in the midst of war, including protecting church sculptures, and offering aid to refugees; and about the old and large (near 500,000) Armenian community of Ukraine, and their place within Ukrainian society.

This is Episode 5 of the limited series called Ukraine, Armenia & War.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Dr. Dominique Arel of the University of Ottawa is a scholar of the Ukrainian Diaspora, which is active and effective in Canadian, and global pol. In a conversation with Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian, he presents an overview of the four waves of Ukrainian migration to Canada, and how each reinforced the identity and organizational capacity of those who had arrived earlier. The conversation focuses on responses to the war and the ability to mobilize the community’s as well as the host country’s – Canada’s – political resources. It ends with the question that has no answer – how do two neighbors go back to any sort of normality after such massive, unprovoked violence?

This is Episode 4 of the limited series called Ukraine, Armenia, and War.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Armenia and Georgia, both caught in the very narrow space between the policies and actions of Russia and those of the West, are responding in very different ways to the Ukraine war. Olesya Vartanyan, based in Tbilisi, Georgia, is International Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst for the South Caucasus region and the guest for Episode 3 of this limited series called Ukraine, Armenia & War. The conversation, with Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian, is about a fractured region.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

How do Armenians in Armenia and Karabakh / Artsakh view similarities and differences in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan, and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia. What are the information flows? What do the first wave of immigrants from Russia and Ukraine want? How has Karabakh’s security been impacted? CivilNet’s Editor-in-Chief Karen Harutyunyan is the guest in Episode 1 of a limited series called Ukraine, Armenia & War, on the Russian invasion of Ukraine as seen from Armenia and the Caucasus.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Who was Anastas Mikoyan? — Dr. Pietro Shakarian, a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union, discusses Anastas Mikoyan, often called the most influential Armenian in the Soviet Union — his life and his impact on Soviet history, from Lenin to Brezhnev, and on the development of Soviet Armenia.

For more, visit armenian.usc.edu.

During Genocide: A Resistance Network? — Dr. Khatchig Mouradian, lecturer at Columbia University, has just been named the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist at the Library of Congress. He speaks to Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian about the initiatives taken by Armenians in Ottoman Syria to resist inevitable destruction and to find ways to rebuild. Dr. Mouradian’s new book is ‘The Resistance Network,’ a study of genocide, survivors and agency. 

For more, visit armenian.usc.edu. 

‘They needed a real Lebanon’ — Dr. Nubar Hovsepian is associate professor of political science at Chapman University. He speaks to Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian about the Palestinian resistance movement, the role of education in forming national identity, and state building in Lebanon.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Additional Resources:

Hovsepian, Nubar. Palestinian State Formation: Education and the Construction of National Identity. Cambridge Scholars, 2008.

Listen to a conversation between Nubar Hovsepian, Arturo Sarukhan,and Manuel Pastor hosted by the Institute about human rights and refugees: https://bit.ly/2E33y24.

Conflict resolution and Nagorno-Karabakh — Dr. Philip Gamaghelyan is an assistant professor of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, and cofounder of the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation and Caucasus Edition, an online journal. He talks to Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian about the politics of memory, intervention, and the design of dialogue between Armenians, Turks and Azeris.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Additional Resources: 

• The Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation is an independent, non-political organization that sustains networks of individuals around the world committed to working across conflict divides. https://www.imaginedialogue.com   
• Caucasus Edition is independent online publication that serves as a forum for scholars, practitioners, journalists, policy analysts and researchers. https://caucasusedition.net  
• Conciliation Resources is a produced film co-produced by Armenian and Azerbaijani journalists and NGO leaders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3yuVOK96RE