Olesya Vartanyan

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus

Crisis Group Role

Olesya Vartanyan is Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst for the South Caucasus region. Based in Tbilisi, she researches and produces reports on regional security issues in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, with a particular focus on breakaway regions in the South Caucasus – Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia.

Professional Background

Olesya Vartanyan has worked on conflicts in the South Caucasus for more than ten years. Before joining Crisis Group in 2016, Olesya worked as a journalist, with a particular focus on security and conflict-related issues in Georgia and its breakaway regions. With her field reporting during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Olesya contributed to the ground-breaking investigations of The New York Times about the origins of the conflict. Enjoying unique access to Abkhazia, for a number of years she covered crisis developments in this region for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In 2013, Olesya received the first EU Monitoring Mission’s special prize in Peace Journalism. She holds master degrees from the King’s College London’s War Department and from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs’ Media School.

Languages

  • Russian  
  • English  
  • Georgian  
  • Armenian  

In The News

30 Oct 2023
In my meetings with displaced people scattered throughout Armenia … I have not met a single person who is considering returning to Nagorno-Karabakh any time soon. CBC

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
3 Oct 2023
Nagorno-Karabakh is at the center of Armenian identity, and the Russians allowed it to collapse. They lost Armenian society. Al-Monitor

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
22 Sep 2023
It was quite obvious … that any military action [by Azerbaijan] that was to take place in [Nagorno-Karabakh], it would lead to the defeat of the local Armenian side. AP

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
21 Sep 2023
The biggest problem … is what to do with the many displaced [Armenians] who cannot return to the villages that were captured by Azerbaijan [in Nagorno-Karabakh]. The New York Times

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
12 Sep 2023
Russia is now distracted and doesn't want to get involved in any other problem or crisis other than Ukraine. Reuters

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus

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