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 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 Karabakh itself. 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-Karabakh conflict zone. 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 6 Aug 2018 The current situation does not contribute to the post-war reconciliation [between Russia and Georgia] - it only fuels conflict with an increasing feeling of injustice for [people] living near the dividing line. Al Jazeera Olesya Vartanyan Senior Analyst, South Caucasus Latest Updates Q&A / Europe & Central Asia 13 January 2022 Turkey-Armenia Talks Hold Promise of Opening Long-Shut Border Turkish and Armenian special envoys will meet in Moscow on 14 January to discuss normalising relations between these long-estranged neighbours. Crisis Group experts Olesya Vartanyan, Nigar Göksel and Zaur Shiriyev unpack how the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020 opened the way for talks. Podcast / Europe & Central Asia 23 November 2021 One Year On from the Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh This week on War & Peace, Olga Oliker and Hugh Pope talk to Crisis Group’s South Caucasus expert Olesya Vartanyan about the conflict in and over Nagorno-Karabakh, a year on from a Russian-brokered ceasefire that put an end to renewed large-scale fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Op-Ed / Europe & Central Asia 10 November 2021 A Risky Role for Russian Peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh Originally published in ISPI U.S. Congressional Testimony / United States 11 March 2020 Antagonizing the Neighborhood: Putin’s Frozen Conflicts and the Conflict in Ukraine In this testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Crisis Group expert Olesya Vartanyan analyses the conflict dynamics in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the breakaway territories from Georgia recognised as independent by Russia, and explains how Washington can promote stability there. Originally published in U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Our Journeys / Europe & Central Asia 4 December 2019 Picturing the Uncertain Calm on Armenia’s Front Lines Sniper fire and clashes have become rare on the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In a year that has seen positive steps to mitigate the decades-old conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, this photo essay illustrates how some Armenian front-line villagers’ lives have slowly improved. Load more