On the 25-26th of May, 2018 the international conference titled "The Republic of Armenia - 100", initiated by the RA Ministry of Diaspora, the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia and the Yerevan State University, was held in Yerevan dedicated to the centennial of the restoration of the independent Armenian statehood. About seven dozen Armenian and foreign scholars representing Armenia, NKR, USA, Georgia, Russia, Lebanon and Germany participated in the works of conference.
In May of the current year, conferences dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia and the May heroic battles were organized. On May 5-6 conferences were held at California State University, Northridge, on May 7 at San Francisco (organized by Berkeley University), on May 11-12 at Columbia University in New York. Many scholars made scientific reports at these conferences. Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the National Archive of Armenia Amatuni Virabyan and Lernik Hovhannisyan from Artsakh took part in the event.
On April 14-15, 2018, by the initiative of the Public Council under the Defense Minister of Armenia (president Gegham Harutyunyan), figures of science and culture of Armenia paid their regular visit to the Defense Army of the Artsakh Republic within the framework of the program “Pages of History and Culture”.
A solemn session took place at NAS RA Institute of History on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of renowned scientist Suren Eremyan - a researcher of history of ancient and medieval Armenia, the founder academician of the Armenian classical cartography.
On March 21-23, under the auspices of Catholicos of the Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, His Holiness ARAM I, an international conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia was held in Beirut, Lebanon. A delegation of 11 scholars from NAS RA Institute of History was among more than 50 speechmakers and participants from different countries. President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan, Academician-Secretary of the Division of Armenology and Social Sciences Yuri Suvaryan, Vice President of the National Assembly of the Artsakh Republic Prof. Vahram Balayan, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Academician Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the Institute of Literature Vardan Devrikyan, Director of the National Archives Amatuni Virabyan, Dean of YSU Faculty of History Prof. Edik Minasyan, Dean of the Faculty of International Relations Prof. Gegham Petrosyan, Chair of the Department of Iranian Studies Vardan Voskanyan, scholars from other Armenian and Diaspora institutions were present at the Conference.
The conference was devoted to the relevant key issues and problems of the Assyrian studies where about 50 scholars and intellectuals participated in from Australia, Germany, Sweden, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
On March 7, the Minister of National Policy, Foreign Relations, Press and Information of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation Jambulat Umarov visited the Institute of History. Upon discussion with Director A. Melkonyan, Chair of the Middle Ages History Department A. Shahnazaryan, Chair of the New History Department R. Sahakyan it was decided to conclude a scientific cooperation agreement between the parties in the near future.
On February 23, 2018, the conference hall of the NAS RA Presidium hosted an international conference titled “Artsakh in the Crossroads of Struggle for the Armenian Statehood” dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the new phase of the Artsakh movement. The conference was organized by the NAS RA Department of Armenology and Social Sciences and Yerevan State University.
On February 19, 2018, Bako Sahakyan, the President of the Republic of Artsakh awarded a group of Artsakh movement activists to medals and honors on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Artsakh Movement and for their services to the homeland. Academician Ashot Melkonyan, Director of the NAS RA Institute of History, was awarded the Medal of Vachagan the Pious (Vachagan Barepasht).
On January 13, a cultural event was held in Los Angeles under the auspices of the Western American Regional Board of the Armenian Relief Society to commemorate the Protectorate of the Needy Armenians in Iraq. Seda Ohanyan, a researcher at the Institute of History of the RA National Academy of Sciences, also participated in the event, speaking on the “Benevolent Activities of Iraqi-Armenian Women”.
On December 16-17, 2017, the Public Council under the RA Ministry of Defense (President Gegham Harutyunyan, Adviser to the Minister) organized the year-end visit to the AR Defense Army’s military units. In the morning of December 17, lecturers from the Defense Army’s headquarters left for different military units in almost every direction.
The personnel of different departments presented reports on the work carried out towards their 2017 thematic plans to the Directorate.
Together with the Chairs, the theme directions and work plans for the coming year were also clarified. Joint proposals on both departmental and scientific-organizational activities of the Institute were discussed.
On December 4, the Annual Summary Meeting of the Institute of History was held. Director of the Institute A. Melkonyan presented the scientific and scientific-organizational activities in 2017. Before summarizing the results he touched upon the course of personnel changes of the Institute during 2012-2017. Consequently, Academician Melkonyan presented the most important achievements recorded in the given year; in total, during the current year, the Institute published 238 works, of which 32 are books, and 206 articles both in Armenian and foreign languages. Melkonyan also spoke about the republican and international conferences organized by the Institute, the participation of researchers in them and their trips, financial report was presented, too.
