РОССИЙСКО-АРМЯНСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

19 Sep
2026

30 Years of “Iran and the Caucasus”: International Conference Dedicated to the Anniversary of Leading Oriental Studies Journal Held at RAU

The anniversary forum brought together 60 leading researchers from 13 countries, including Armenia, Iran, Russia, China, France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Finland, Türkiye, Australia, and Japan.

The international conference “30 Years of Iran and the Caucasus: A Proud Milestone” opened at the Russian-Armenian University on September 19. The large-scale academic forum was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the academic journal Iran and the Caucasus, published under the editorship of the Institute’s Director, Professor Garnik Asatrian, by the prestigious European publishing house Brill.

Over the past three decades, the journal has become one of the world’s leading platforms for the study of the Iranian-Caucasian region as a complex space shaped by historical contacts, cultural interactions, and long-standing civilizational continuity.

The conference featured 16 specialized sections, clearly demonstrating the interdisciplinary character of the publication. The opening ceremony featured welcoming remarks by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Garnik Asatrian, and Dr. A. Weslat, a representative of De Gruyter Brill.

Professor Asatrian’s keynote presentation, “Three Decades at the Crossroads: The Journey of Iran and the Caucasus,” focused on the journal’s thirty-year history. Other key presentations included Salome Golami’s lecture on Zoroastrian oral songs and Herman Kreutzmann’s lecture on trade routes in Central Asia.

During the forum, De Gruyter Brill organized an extensive exhibition of academic journals and monographs. Following the conclusion of the conference, the entire exhibition will be donated to the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian-Armenian University.

The conference was organized as part of a project of the Science Committee of the Republic of Armenia, with the support of De Gruyter Brill Publishers.