Expert Committee on Historic Responsibility

Varoujan Altebarmakian chairman of the Endowment Fund of the Western Diocese Armenian Church. In 1973 he graduated from the American University of Beirut as Medical Doctor and In 1981 graduated from Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York as a Urologist. From 1981-2018, Dr. Altebarmakian worked at Kaiser Permanente Organization, first as a Staff Urologist then as the Medical Director of the Fresno Medical Center. He was the chairman of the Diocesan Council of the Western Diocese for 12 years with two Primates, Vatche Srpazan and Hovnan Srpazan. From 2002 to 2019, he was also a member of the Supreme Spiritual Council in Etchmiadzin.

Garo Armenian is a former member of the ARF Bureau, an economist at Boston University and a financier in international finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Graduate School of Finance. He has held a number of senior positions in the financial structures of global companies, including Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Siemens. Mr. Armenian is the author of two books and a number of publications, which have appeared in "Hayreniq", "Asparez", "Horizon", "Azdak", "Azat Or", "Alik", "Yusaber", "Armenia", "Aparazh", "Gandzasar" and other periodicals.

Shahen Avakian is a diplomat and statesman. He held various government positions. He was the General Secretary of the RA Foreign Ministry, advisor to the RA President.

Ashot Bleyan is a party and public figure of RA. Being also a pedagogue, in 1989 he founded the "Mkhitar Sebastatsi" educational complex in Yerevan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a board member of Pan-Armenian National Movement, in 1990 he was elected a deputy of the RA Supreme Council. In 1991, he was the deputy mayor of Yerevan. He headed the newly created "New Path" socio-political organization from 1992 to 2004. From 1994 to 1995, Ashot Bleyan was the Acting Minister of Education of the Republic of Armenia and from1995 to 1996, the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Science and Education of RA. Since 2020, he has been leading the "New Way" socio-political initiative.

Hayk Demoyan is a historian, Ph.D. in History. From 2006 to 2017 he worked as the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of RA. In 2012 he defended his doctoral dissertation titled "Turkey's foreign policy and the Karabakh issue. historical comparative analysis". From 2011 to 2015 he was the Secretary of the state commission coordinating events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Mr. Demoyan is the author of 17 monographs and books, as well as more than 40 academic articles. His research interests include the Artsakh conflict, Armenian-Turkish relations and the phenomenon of Pan-Turkism, ethnonational conflicts in the South Caucasus, the study of issues of national identity and stereotypes. Mr. Demoyan regularly gives speeches and lectures in Armenia and abroad. Currently he is developing several museum projects in Gyumri city.

Khatchik Der Ghougassian is a Ph.D. in International Studies from University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. with an emphasis on international security. He is the chair of the Theory of International Relations at Universidad Nacional de Lanus and a visiting professor at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Previously he taught at Universidad de San Andres and the American University of Armenia. He taught about the Middle East at ISEN, the diplomatic school of Argentina, among other institutions. Born in Lebanon, DerGhougassian moved to Argentina in 1987 to become the editor of Diario ARMENIA, the local Armenian community’s publication, where he remained until 1997. In 2017 he received the Ugarit 2017 prize of the Argentine Syrian-Lebanese Club for his input in the field of culture.

Rouben Galichian is an independent London-based scholar and researcher specializing in historical maps of Armenia and the South Caucasus region. After receiving First Class Honours Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Aston, Birmingham, in 1973 he was appointed the Technical Director of a large consulting engineering firm, Bornaa (Nargan). From 1981 to 2000 he was a project director in Halcrow-Balfours Engineering firm in the UK and later worked as consultant for oil-gas-petrochemical industries. Rouben Galichian has published many books and articles on the history and cartography of the Caucasus. In 1976 he laid the foundation of his map collection, which in 2013 he donated to Matenadaran in Yerevan. He was the first consul of Armenia in Great Britain and carried out active and great social activities in different years.

Ruben Karapetyan is a diplomat, Ph.D. in History and professor. He received his edcuation at YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies, Haigazian University of Beirut, and also attended a number of courses at Oxford, Leeds, Edinburgh and other universities. From 1999-2000 he was the head of the staff of the MFA of RA, then from 2000 to 2004 he was the head of the Asia and Africa department of the MFA of RA. From 2004-2013 Mr. Karapetyan was the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of RA in Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South African Republic, Sudan, Morocco, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Portugal, Malta. From 2019 to 2020 he was an adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RA and from 2020 to 2022, an adviser to the President of the Republic of Armenia. Mr. Karapetyan has developed a rich scientific research and pedagogical activity, he is the author of 7 monographs and more than three dozen scientific articles on the geopolitics of the Middle East and the South Caucasus, international relations.

Alexander Manasyan is an Armenian philosopher, Ph.D. in philosophy, professor. After graduating from the Armenian department of the Baku Pedagogical Institute in 1962, he started working as a journalist in the Armenian republican newspaper "Communist" in Baku. From 1988-1991, he was the founder-chairman of the "Artsakh" patriotic union, and from 1991 to 1995, the founder-chairman of the "Against Legal Arbitrariness" human rights non-governmental organization. Since 1987, he has been a professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. From 1992 to 2003, he was the head of the philosophy department of the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of RA. Mr. Manasyan has been a member of the Armenian Philosophical Academy since 1994, and a corresponding member of the NAS of RA since 2006. Mr. Manasyan currently teaches at the YSU Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology, heads the "Political Research Academy" NGO and carries out intensive scientific and pedagogical activities.

Dr. Harutyun Marutyan is an ethnographer, Ph.D. in historical sciences, the Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Foundation. He is also a Head Research Fellow (part-time) at the Department of Contemporary Anthropological Studies in the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. He authored more than a hundred and thirty scholarly articles and several monographs, among them: The Axiological Roots of Constitutional Culture in the Millennial Annals of the Armenian People (with co-authors) (Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin: 2020); The Rescue of Armenians in the Middle East in 1915-1923 (with co-editor) (Yerevan: AGMI, 2020); Stalin Era Repressions in Armenia: History, Memory, Everyday Life (with co-authors) (Yerevan: Gitutyun, 2015); Iconography of Armenian identity. Volume 1: The Memory of Genocide and the Karabagh Movement (Yerevan: Gitutyun, 2009), The Role of Memory in the Structure of Identity: Questions of Theory (Yerevan: Noravank, 2006). His research interests include genocide memory and national identity transformation, Armenian Genocide memory, modern national movements, iconography, and traditional Armenian culture. He is an IREX/RSEP (Michigan University, 1998), Fulbright (MIT, 2003-2004), and DAAD (Berlin, 2013) alumnus. In 2009-2010 he was Diane and Howard Wohl Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, US Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC). He is a recipient of the President of the Republic of Armenia Prize (2011) for having made a valuable contribution to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, for his methodologically innovative research into the continuity of the memory of the Armenian Genocide and its relationships with the Karabagh Movement.

Dr. Khatchig Mouradian is a lecturer in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University, and the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress. He also serves as Co-Principal Investigator of the project on Armenian Genocide Denial at the Global Institute for Advanced Studies, New York University. Mouradian is the author of the award-winning book The Resistance Network: The Armenian Genocide and Humanitarianism in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1918. He is the co-editor of two forthcoming volumes on Ottoman and Middle Eastern History: After the Ottomans: Genocide’s Long Shadow and Armenian Resilience and The I.B.Tauris Handbook of the Late Ottoman Empire: History and Legacy. Mouradian has published articles and book chapters on concentration camps, unarmed resistance, the aftermath of mass violence, midwifery in the Middle East, and approaches to teaching history. He also serves as the editor of the peer-reviewed journal The Armenian Review.

Ruben Safrastyan is an outstanding orientalist-Turkologist, academician of RA NAS, Ph.D. in history, professor. He received his education at YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies, Department of Turkish Studies, and NAS Institute of Oriental Studies as a PhD student. From 1988-1991 he worked as the deputy director of the Diaspora Study Center of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. He also has the experience of working as a political scientist-analyst in the highest bodies of state administration, as well as in diplomatic work. From 1991-1992 was a senior expert on international relations of the Supreme Council of Armenia, from 1992-1996, deputy head of the analytical department of the RA President's Office. From 2006-2020, he was the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of RA, and currently he is the chief researcher of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of the RA. Mr. Safrastyan is a member of many organizations, councils and editorial boards of scientific journals, he has received a number of state and international awards. He has lectured at a number of universities around the world, and currently at ASPU, the Russian-Armenian University, the American University of Armenia and the Diplomatic School of Armenia. Mr. Safrastyan authored more than 200 articles, many monographs and textbooks.

Khachatur Stepanyan is a historian, Ph.D. in history and professor. He has a rich scientific and pedagogical work experience. Mr. Stepanyan is the head of the Department of World History and its Teaching Methodology at ASPU named after Khachatur Abovian, and at the same time teaches at the Department of Armenian History of YSU. From 2006-2020, he taught at the Department of Armenian History of the ASPU. From 2009 to 2011, he participated in the training program for Diaspora Armenian teachers of the Diaspora Scientific and Educational Center of ASPU as a trainer-specialist of history teachers. From 2016-2022, he was a professor at the Chair of Diaspora Studies of YSU, the Chair of History and Social Studies of YSU Ijevan branch, a guest lecturer at Pázmány Péter Catholic University and Kiel University. The research carried out by Khachatur Stepanyan covers the late 19th century and the beginning of 20th century of the Armenian national-liberation movement, the Republic of Armenia (1918-1920), Armenian-Georgian relations, Diaspora Armenian social and political thought of the 1920s-1930s, the history of Soviet Armenia and Transcaucasia, and a number of other topics. He gave public lectures and scientific reports in a number of famous foreign universities and scientific centers (USA, France, Great Britain, Russia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Lebanon, etc.).

Yeghia Tashjian is a regional analyst and researcher. He graduated from the American University of Beirut in Public Policy and International Affairs and in 2022 he graduated from the Swedish Defense University's "Strategic Leadership in Global Societal Security Programme". He pursued his BA at Haigazian University in political science in 2013. In 2010, he founded the New Eastern Politics forum/blog. He was a research assistant at the Armenian Diaspora Research Center at Haigazian University. He has participated in international conferences and has presented various topics from minority rights to regional security issues. His thesis topic was on China’s geopolitical and energy security interests in Iran and the Persian Gulf. He is a contributor to various local and regional newspapers and a presenter of the “Turkey Today” program for Radio Voice of Van. Currently, he is an associate fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut and a part-time instructor in international affairs at the American University for Science and Technology (AUST).

Oscar Tatosian was one of the leaders of the American-Armenian community. He is a member of the Board of the Armenian Relief Fund. Mr. Tatosyan is the president of Oscar Isberian Rugs, Inc. From 1995-2005, he was a member of the Auxiliary Board of The Art Institute of Chicago. From 1996-2012, he was a chairman of the Diocesan Counsel for the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America. Since 2012, he is a member of Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church Board of Trustees and board member of St. Nersess Seminary serving the three Diocese of the Armenian Church in North and the Armenian Assembly of America. He is the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Armenia in Chicago and has consistently promoted Armenian culture, history, and heritage to a wide variety of local and national organizations.

Vahe Vartanian is London-based Founder, CEO of the Global Family Office Community (GFOC) Co-Founder of the Global Next Gen Community, and is a globally recognised leader in the family office space. He spent his early career in marketing management, especially in financial services. He created GFOC to provide a safe and comfortable setting where family offices can meet each other, share ideas, stories and best practice, and learn from experts. Vahe is also a Goodwill Ambassador of the Aurora Prize.

Ashot Voskanyan is an Armenian philosopher, diplomat, Ph.D. in philosophy and associate professor. In 1993, he founded the Armenian Research Center in Humanities where he chairs to this day. 1990-1995 he was elected to the first independent parliament, the RA Supreme Council, was a chairman of a standing Committee and a member of the Presidency. Later, Mr. Voskanyan was re-elected to the RA National Assembly, was a member of the RA Constitutional Commission and a delegate of the National Church Assembly. In 1995-2002 he was the RA ambassador to a number of European countries, including Austria and Germany. He was the permanent representative of the Republic of Armenia in the OSCE and the United Nations in Vienna, and also held a number of positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. Authored more than 50 scientific publications in Armenian, Russian, German, English and French.