PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Center for National and International Studies
75 Yerznkian Street
Yerevan 0033, Armenia
Tel: (+374 – 10) 52.87.80 or 27.48.18
Fax: (+374 – 10) 52.48.46
Email: root@acnis.am or info@acnis.am
Website:
February 22, 2010
ACNIS HOLDS RECEPTION TO RELEASE NEW YEARBOOK:
`ACNIS AT 15: THE POWER OF NEW IDEAS’
Yerevan–On February 19, the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies (ACNIS) hosted a special reception to release
the new ACNIS annual yearbook publication, entitled `ACNIS at 15: The
Power of New Ideas’. The reception was attended by over 100 guests,
including members of the Armenian parliament and government officials,
representatives from international organizations and members of the
diplomatic community in Armenia, including Italian Ambassador Bruno
Scapini, British Ambassador Charles Lonsdale and Ambassador Sergey
Kapinos, the head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan.
Welcoming the guests, ACNIS Director Richard Giragosian explained that
the release of the `ACNIS at 15: The Power of New Ideas’ yearbook
represented the Center’s mission to offer innovative research and
objective analysis on a wide range of critical issues in order to
raise the level of public awareness and to encourage greater knowledge
and debate within Armenian society. He added that the yearbook also
reflected the Center’s past fifteen years of objective and
professional analysis, which he stressed was rooted in a broader
effort to strengthen and deepen the formulation of public policy in
Armenia. The ACNIS director specifically pointed to the significance
of the name of the yearbook, highlighting that it was based on `the
power of new ideas’ in order to contribute to the development of
critical thinking in Armenia.
Giragosian also expressed sadness, however, with the fact that the
reception coincided with the sixth anniversary of the tragic murder of
Armenian Army Lieutenant Gurgen Markarian, who was brutally killed by
an Azerbaijani soldier during a NATO language training course in
Budapest, Hungary. Commemorating the Armenian officer’s murder,
Giragosian explained that the tragic crime only affirmed the larger
reality of threats to Armenian security that he explained were not
only demonstrated by the murder but that are also confirmed by
Azerbaijan’s repeated threats of war and militant rhetoric directed
against Armenia.
On behalf of the Center, Giragosian then welcomed the more than 100
guests and specifically thanked the representatives from the embassies
of France, Italy, Romania, Syria, the United Kingdom and the United
States, as well as from international organizations, such as the
Council of Europe, the European Union Delegation in Armenia, the OSCE
Office in Yerevan, the Red Cross, United Nations and the US Agency for
International Development (USAID). He also noted the presence of
officials from the Armenian ministries of defense, finance, foreign
affairs and justice, as well as Armenian Members of Parliament Larisa
Alaverdyan, Anahit Bakhshyan, Armen Martirosyan and Stepan Safaryan
from the `Heritage’ Party.
Giragosian then introduced two prominent contributors to the Yearbook,
Dr. Tatoul Manasserian and ACNIS Senior Analyst Manvel Sargsian. Dr.
Manasserian, a Professor of Economics at Yerevan Sate University,
offered his congratulations to ACNIS for its decade and a half of work
and hailed the yearbook as the latest example of the Center’s
commitment to innovative and objective analysis. For his part, ACNIS
Senior Analyst Sargsian expressed his appreciation to the guests and
added that the new publication offered a diverse set of papers and
studies covering a broad range of domestic and foreign policy issues
with a national, regional and international focus.
In his closing remarks, ACNIS Director Giragosian reminded the guests
that the Center was created 15 years ago as a pioneering institutional
initiative by Raffi K. Hovannisian, Armenia’s first Minister of
Foreign Affairs, whose vision centered on the need for an objective
and independent strategic research institution or `think tank’ in
Armenia.
The nearly 500-page `ACNIS at 15: The Power of New Ideas’ yearbook
offers a unique collection of two dozen essays and articles, in
Armenian, English and Russian, authored by leading Armenian and
international experts. The yearbook also includes a comprehensive
summary chronology of significant events in each of the countries of
the South Caucasus region since 1991, focusing on political, economic,
social and security-related developments in Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Nagorno Karabagh, and offers the reader an accompanying
set of reference maps, documents and materials. The `ACNIS at 15: The
Power of New Ideas’ yearbook is available by contacting the Center and
the electronic version can be readily downloaded from the ACNIS
website at
The Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) is
a leading independent strategic research center located in Yerevan,
Armenia. As an independent, objective institution committed to
conducting professional policy research and analysis, ACNIS strives to
raise the level of public debate and seeks to broaden public
engagement in the public policy process, as well as fostering greater
and more inclusive public knowledge. Founded in 1994, ACNIS is the
institutional initiative of Raffi K. Hovannisian, Armenia’s first
Minister of Foreign Affairs. Over the past fifteen years, ACNIS has
acquired a prominent reputation as a primary source of professional
independent research and analysis covering a wide range of national
and international policy issues.
For further information on the Center call (37410) 52-87-80 or
27-48-18; fax (37410) 52-48-46; email root@acnis.am or info@acnis.am;
or visit