YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–An ethnic Armenian scholar from the United States was appointed by a presidential decree on Wednesday head of Armenia’s permanent mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The Lebanese-born Jivan Tabibian lectured for many years in various American universities. A political scientist by training–Tabibian was the initiator of a number of international conferences and round tables on Armenia’s foreign policy and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The present Armenian foreign minister–Vartan Oskanian–also comes from Diaspora. Oskanian surrendered his American passport to obtain Armenian citizenship shortly before his ministerial appointment in April.