Tatul Hakobyan, who is a journalist and a specialist on the conflicts in the Caucasus, will co-ordinate the activities of the newly-established ANI Foundation for Armenian Studies.

“ANI is being set up at a time when a gap is being felt in objective and comprehensive publications on the domestic political life, demographics, the economy, border communities, the region, and Homeland-Diaspora affairs in Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). We aim to fill that gap with our work,” Hakobyan said.

ANI will prepare reports on current issues pertaining to Armenia’s domestic and foreign policy, economy, agriculture, as well as the Diaspora – including communities in the former Soviet Union – Armenia-Turkey relations, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The centre will organize conferences, round tables, releases of relevant books, and various other projects related to Armenian Studies.

“There is sometimes a lack of critical thought based on the Armenian agenda in Armenia and the diaspora. ANI will attempt to provide its own input in that regard by presenting not just ideas and proposals, but also approaches to reasonable and feasible solutions,” Hakobyan said. He emphasized that the publications by ANI must be of benefit for institutions and individuals in the diaspora to have more involvement and investments in Armenia’s border communities, to begin with in order to develop the villages immediately bordering Azerbaijan.

He said that ANI will closely follow developments in Armenia-Iran and Armenia-Georgia relations, given that, upon membership in the Eurasian Economic Union, the co-operation between Armenia and its two immediate neighbours will receive a different context and character.

Before joining ANI, Hakobyan had two decades of experience in journalism at the Ankakhutyun, Yerkir, and Azg newspapers, the RadioLur programme at the Public Radio of Armenia, the English-language Armenian-American weekly Armenian Reporter, the Civilitas Foundation and its online CivilNet broadcasts. From 2005 to 2012, he was associated with the Armenian-language service of SBS Radio, based in Sydney, Australia. Hakobyan has been the Yerevan correspondent for the Armenian-language Aztag daily of Beirut since 2005.

Tatul Hakobyan was recognised as the journalist of the year by the Yerevan Press Club in 2005 for his reports on the region. He also received an award from that organisation in 2009 for his book Karabakh Diary: Green and Black. Another book by Hakobyan – Armenians and Turks: From War to Cold War to Diplomacy – was awarded the Haigashen Ouzounian Literary Prize by the Tekeyan Cultural Association in 2014.