THE FIFTEENTH YEAR

As ACNIS enters its fifteenth year of public service, it finds itself engaged at the forefront of public policy discussion. Its activities have earned the Center broad public confidence.

There is, indeed, much cause to celebrate.

Armenia’s presidential elections in February 2008 inspired a new national dialogue, which raised fresh questions regarding human rights, freedom of the media, and the evolution of the rule of law. ACNIS moved to provide the first and most effective answers to these questions and, by way of its respected roundtables, offered them to the public. In 2008 our research found more echoes in the press and more resonance in the citizenry.

Yet the very year that pushed our institutional talent also challenged our nation’s soul.

Within its borders, our Republic faced a crisis of the first order. In the aftermath of the presidential elections, police stood against citizen, democracy froze under emergency rule, and ordinary protestors were jailed without trial. It was around the Center’s conference table that experts, citizens, incumbent officials, and oppositionists convened to discuss the relationship of law and order in Armenia.

Beyond its borders and beyond its control, Armenia unfortunately has witnessed the gradual transformation of foreign public opinion and diplomatic efforts against a just peace in Artsakh. As the United Nations and the Council of Europe made references to the “territorial integrity” of one side, while at the same time overlooking the other’s right to “selfdetermination,” it was ACNIS that produced and circulated the research that these major institutions required.

The questions of internal politics and international policy which emerged in 2008 will define 2009.They will be joined by many other vital questions, including Armenian-Turkish relations, preservation of cultural heritage in the historic Armenian heartlands, and the terms of cooperation between the modern state and its Diaspora.

There is no doubt that, in the coming year, the true character of Armenian democracy, the true prospects for resolution in Artsakh, and the true stature of the Republic of Armenia will become evident for all to see.

But ACNIS is not content merely with receiving news. Non-partisan but uncompromisingly honest, we open 2009 with a plan to lay just and solid foundations to all discourse that concerns our Republic. We cannot guarantee a national triumph, but we do pledge to produce the research and analysis without which meaningful gains will not be possible.

Thank you for renewing your partnership with ACNIS as we move together to surmount successfully the great challenges facing the nation.

Founded in 1994 by Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi K. Hovannisian, and supported by the Lincy Foundation and a global network of contributors, ACNIS serves as a link between innovative scholarship and the public policy challenges facing Armenia and the Armenian people in the post-Soviet world. It also aspires to be a catalyst for creative, strategic thinking and a wider understanding of the new global environment. In 2005, the Center focuses primarily on public outreach, civic education, and applied research on critical domestic and foreign policy issues for the state and the nation.

For further information on the Center and its activities, call (3741) 52-87-80 or 27-48-18; fax (3741) 52-48-46; e-mail root@acnis.am or info@acnis.am