Armenia’s Third Republic: Independence and Early Years

Dr. Asbed Kotchikian looks back on the events that gave rise to the independence movement in Soviet Armenia in the late 1980s and the circumstances that shaped the newly independent republic after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Positioned at the intersection of three major global powers, Armenia had to find a balanced approach to foreign policy while struggling with a blockade and a war for Nagorno Karabagh. Dr. Kotchikian describes the sense of hope, optimism and purpose that drove the nation to make a united stand for freedom and self-determination.

Originally published September 2017.

About the speaker

Asbed Kotchikian

Dr. Asbed Kotchikian is a senior lecturer at the Global Studies Department at Bentley University where he teaches courses on the Middle East and former Soviet Union. During the last 15 years, Dr. Kotchikian has traveled extensively and lived in countries in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. He has written, lectured, presented, and organized conferences on foreign policies of small and weak states, questions of identity and transformation of transnational (Diasporic) groups, national identity, and regional developments in the Middle East and Eurasia. He has published articles and book chapters in various venues including Demokratizatsya, Insight Turkey, and Central Asia and the Caucasus. His book, The Dialectics of Small States: Foreign Policy Making in Armenia and Georgia, was published in 2008. Since 2008, he has also been the editor-in-chief of the academic peer reviewed journal, Armenian Review.

Asbed Kotchikian