EVN Talks

Edgar Marukyan, CTO of Renderforest, has launched a consulting and mentorship program that helps startups scale their businesses. He speaks to EVN Report about the challenges and opportunities for small business in Armenia, how more women are venturing into the sphere, the business climate, developing a productive work ethic and more.

The Crowdfunding Formula, is one of the most successful marketing agencies in the world. Co-founder and CEO, Narek Vardanyan, who is also the author of the best selling book “57 Secrets of Crowdfunding” explains how the idea started with a failure that led to identifying a gap in the innovation industry. His message: Have big ambitions, turn knowledge into valuable products that can solve global problems and most of all, eliminate the fear of coming from somewhere small.

The 18th annual Golden Apricot International Film Festival (GAIFF) kicked off in Yerevan on October 3. Varvara Hovhannisyan, head of the festival’s international department and Sona Karapoghosyan, the project manager of GAIFF Pro (a Cross Border Regional Co-Production Feature Film Project and Work-in-Progress Markets for filmmakers from the Lesser Caucasus) speak to EVN Report about the films that are being featured this year and the position of GAIFF in the global film festival circuit.

Simon Maghakyan, who lectures on international relations at the University of Colorado, Denver and is a visiting scholar at Tufts University has been researching Eurasian politics of cultural erasure since 2005. He speaks to EVN Report about the threat of the destruction of Armenian historical monuments that are now under Azerbaijani control.

A specialist in 19th and 20th century Russian and Eurasian history, Dr. Pietro Shakarian speaks to EVN Report about the intricate and complicated history surrounding Soviet Armenian statesman Anastas Mikoyan, how his ethnicity informed his politics, his role in the purges and later in the series of political reforms after Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953 known as de-Stalinization.

After enlisting in the US Army at the age of 17 and serving several tours in Afghanistan, Joe Kassabian returned and published his novel “Hooligans of Kandahar.” Kassabian also hosts a popular military history podcast series called Lions Led by Donkeys. During a recent visit to Armenia, Kassabian spoke to EVN Report about the 2020 Artsakh War, the frustration of the biased coverage of the war, the absence of nuance, and how he plans on never shutting up about the cause of Armenia.

The methodology employed in the teaching of Armenian history must be reevaluated according to historian Zohrab Gevorgyan. An expert on the ancient Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Gevorgyan says that over time, myths and personalization have become central themes in the teaching and understanding of Armenians’ collective history.

After working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Aerospace Corporation, Dr. Mary Boghosian moved to Armenia in 2015. She established the Center for Innovation Promotion and Research and also lectures at the American University of Armenia and Yerevan State University. She is passionate about encouraging and promoting innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.

On August 18, 2021, Armenia’s Prime Minister unveiled the Armenian Government’s 2021-2026 Programme and said that opening an era of peaceful development for Armenia and the region is their most important mission. EVN Report’s Maria Titizian speaks to political analyst Tigran Grigoryan who takes a closer look at the Programme’s vision for Artsakh, security and defense and foreign policy.

A complex set of issues is impacting water resources, from poor management to threats to water security in Armenia and Artsakh. EVN Report’s Maria Titizian spoke to Stepan Khachatryan, a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and water resources specialist, who is also supporting the coordination of the Kaps Reservoir, the largest industrial hydro-engineering project in Armenia.