The political history of post-Soviet Armenia is the topic of this lecture by Prof. Anna Ohanyan. The key issues of state formation, political hybridity of regime type, the ethnic conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, democratic aspirations and fragility, as well as Armenia’s current state of nascent democracy after the Velvet Revolution in 2018 is analysed.

While the presentation identifies forces and factors specific to Armenia and Armenians, it also shows how Armenia’s “story” as a small state and a nascent democracy is a global story of great power rivalry perennially challenging institutional consolidation of small states in fractured regions.

It illustrates Armenia’s global trajectory in the frontlines of imperial collapse in Russia and concurrent neo-imperial aspirations of contemporary Turkey. The challenges of state-building in fractured regions also offers a new framework through which Eurasian politics after the Russian invasion of Ukraine can be analysed.

The School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Armenian Communities Department), and the Portugal-Armenia Friendship Association have teamed up to offer a five-part series of bi-weekly lectures on the Armenian people. This is the first such initiative in Portugal. The lectures, delivered in English by international experts, introduce the rich history and culture of the Armenians, one of the oldest people in the world, to the academic community in Portugal, as well as to the interested public.