A conversation between Dr. Libaridian and UCLA's Armenian community.
Friday, April 9, 2021
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (Pacific Time)
The Armenian Students' Association at UCLA and the Promise Armenian Institute present a conversation between historian and diplomat Jirair Libaridian and UCLA's Armenian community exploring the past, present, and future of Armenia’s politics and foreign policy.
How, after a resounding victory in 1994 at the conclusion of the First Karabakh War, did Armenia suffer crushing defeat in the second war in 2020? In the midst of crisis, where can Armenia go? What is the agency of the Armenian people in determining Armenia’s fate? These are the central questions of the conversation.
Jirair Libaridian
Retired in 2012, Professor Jirair Libaridian's last academic position was at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he held the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History (2001-2012). Dr. Libaridian was a co-founder of the Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation in Cambridge, Mass., and its director from 1982 to 1990. From 1991 to 1997, he served as adviser, and then senior adviser to the first President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrossian, as well as First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1993-1994) of the newly independent republic. As such he had primary responsibility for negotiations related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and to bilateral relations with Turkey, among others. Prof. Libaridian is the author and editor of a number of works and has published and lectured extensively and internationally on modern and contemporary Armenian history and politics. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is currently working on a number of book projects.