BELMONT, Mass. — Dr. Hayk Demoyan, director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia, will give a talk titled “The End of the Third Republic? Or, What to Expect for Armenia’s Future,” on Thursday, October 13, at 7:30 p.m., at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Ave. The lecture is sponsored by the NAASR/Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lecture Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues.
The current situation and recent developments in Armenia show that the country has entered into a new and turbulent period of its history. Internal disturbances and limitations in the realm of foreign policy have brought new challenges for the 25-year-old former Soviet republic. The independence for which the current generation paid a high price of social hardships and endured the Karabagh War now faces fresh challenges and threats. The role of the diaspora in shaping ongoing developments is still unclear since neither Armenia itself nor the diaspora has developed clear-cut formulas for cooperation and the merging of interests.
The evident crises in political, economic, cultural, and ideological spheres, together with continuing emigration and civil unrest, indicate that Armenia is at the threshold of developments which could result either in new political disorders or offer opportunities for innovative state-building strategies. The appearance of a new generation of decision makers in a political arena and business could present an alternative to overcome the existing crises which clearly endanger the very essence of the statehood.
Demoyan is the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia, a position he has held since 2006. From 2011 to 2015 he was the Secretary of the State Commission on Coordination of the events dedicated to the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Demoyan is the author of 12 books, including The Armenian Genocide: Front Page Coverage in the World Media (2014, in Armenian, English, Russian, and French), Foreign Policy of Turkey and Karabakh Conflict (2013, in Russian), Armenian Sport and Gymnastics in the Ottoman Empire (2009, in Armenian), and Western Media Coverage of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in 1988-1990 (2008, in English), as well as some 40 academic articles.
