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

15 Dec 2022
With the current crisis in Ukraine, it is not easy for those in the West to support the Russian presence in Nagorno-Karabakh. Eurasianet

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
3 Oct 2020
This is a more serious escalation [over Nagorno-Karabakh], much better prepared, with more troops, and happening simultaneously on all parts of the front line. The Economist

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
28 Sep 2020
We are a step away from a large-scale war (between Armenia and Azerbaijan). Al-Jazeera

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
16 Jul 2020
It seems unlikely the [Azerbaijan-Armenia] crisis would escalate, as neither side has territorial claims on northern border areas and the fighting had not spread to Karab... Al Jazeera

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
13 Jul 2020
Many people would be very surprised if clashes at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border spiral out into war, but that doesn’t mean something cannot happen, say, in the Nagorno-Ka... OC Media

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus
20 Jan 2020
[January] events in Abkhazia come at a time of long-simmering tensions. Civil.ge

Olesya Vartanyan

Senior Analyst, South Caucasus

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