The Caucasus Institute will hold Caucasus 2009 International Conference in Yerevan on May 21-22, 2010.

The conference will sum up the year 2009 in the Caucasus. Participants will be scholars, journalists and public activists from Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Russia and European states. Topics for discussion are the political, social and economic development of the North and South Caucasus in 2009; Russian, European, Turkish and U.S. policies in the Caucasus in 2009; unrecognized states and ethno-political conflicts in the Caucasus; regional security in the South Caucasus.

Speakers include Mitat Celikpala, TOBB University of Economics and Technologies, Ankara; Richard Giragosyan, ACNIS, Yerevan; Magdalena Frichova Grono, Conciliation Resources, Brussels; Ivlian Haindrava, Center for Development and Cooperation, Tbilisi; Alexander Krylov, Institute of World Economics and International Relations, Moscow; Sergey Markedonov, Institute for Military and Policy Analysis, Moscow; Edward Naghdalyan, Delovoy Express Weekly, Yerevan.

The conference is part of a project on Building Capacity for Policy Debate in Armenia financed by the European Union to the tune of 180 000 euro. The conference is also supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Heinrich Boll Foundation.

Onno Simons, Charge d'Affaires of the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia will make a welcome speech at the opening session.