RSC Director Richard Giragosian briefed the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, on 12 April, on the current situation in the wake of the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. The RSC also presented a more detailed three-page report, entitled “The South Caucasus: Regional Challenges and Concerns,” for the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) that included five key “lessons learned” from the recent resumption of hostilities over Karabakh as well a set of six policy several recommendations for the United Nations.

In response to the outbreak of open warfare along the Nagorno-Karabakh “line of contact,” the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent think tank in Armenia, convened a closed RSC Special Briefing on 4 April to offer a “Situational Assessment” of the military, diplomatic and political situation. 

The Regional Studies Center (RSC) held its latest monthly briefing on 30 March, with a presentation by RSC Director Richard Giragosian focusing on an analysis of domestic political developments in Armenia and an assessment of regional developments (briefing notes attached).

In a special presentation hosted by Anahit Simonyan, the head of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Operations in Armenia, RSC Director Richard Giragosian offered a lecture on Armenia for a visiting group of three dozen graduate students and faculty from the Pazmany Peter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary. Giragosian’s presentation traced Armenia’s course of democratization, economic development and conflict resolution through the period of independence, with an added focus on the broader context of Armenia’s performance in meeting the UN’s set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals. A discussion, with Dr. Balint Kovacs, the head of the visiting Hungarian group, then followed the presentation.

The Regional Studies Center (RSC) has actively supported the European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) program and as an active member of the Eastern partnership Civil Society Forum, contributes to the deepening of ties and association between the EU and Armenia, as well as the other five members of the EaP (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and Azerbaijan).