Ashot Voskanyan

Ashot Voskanyan (Armenian: Աշոտ Ոսկանյան; born April 24, 1949)[1] is an Armenian philosopher, former diplomat and member of parliament.

Biography

Voskanyan is a graduate of the faculty of philosophy of the Yerevan State University. He was a member of the Communist Party.[1] He was elected to the Armenian parliament (then still called the Supreme Soviet) in 1990 as a member of the pro-independence Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh), led by Levon Ter-Petrosyan. He was re-elected to parliament (now called the National Assembly) in 1995. He was the Chairman of Standing Committee on Ethics in the parliament.[1][2] He was also a senior member of the HHSh.[3] He speaks fluent German.[4]

In 1995 Voskanyan was appointed Armenia's Ambassador to Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia (stationed in Vienna)[5] and as Armenia's Permanent Representative to Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations Office at Vienna. In 1998 he was appointed Ambassador of Armenia to Germany, a position he held until 2002.[6] He then worked in different positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,[7] including adviser to the Foreign Minister,[8] and Head of Asia-Pacific and Africa Department at the Ministry.[9]

He is the founder and president of the Armenian Research Center in Humanities (ARCH) since 1993.[7] As a scholar, he is particularly interested in methodology of social sciences, hermeneutics, theories of rationality and social modernization, and national identity.[7] He currently teaches at the American University of Armenia and Russian-Armenian University.[10] He formerly lectured at the Yerevan State University as well.[1][11]

Views

Voskanyan, himself an active participant of the Karabakh movement, argues that it was the end of something, while the 2018 Armenian revolution was the beginning of something.[12] On May 2, 2018 he was among the faculty of the American University of Armenia that signed a public statement supporting "the Armenian people's peaceful movement to restore social democratic values and fair, transparent elections."[13]

Publications

Voskanyan has authored more than 50 publications, in Armenian, Russian, German, English and French.[7] His monograph The Inevitability of Understanding: Essays on the history of philosophical hermeneutics and deconstruction (Հասկացման անխուսափելիությունը. Դրվագներ փիլիսոփայական հերմենևտիկայի և կազմաքանդման պատմությունից) was published by the Yerevan State University Press in 2015 (ISBN 978-5-8084-1971-1).[14][15]

In 2017 his The Time of Charents (Չարենցի ժամանակը) was published in which he analyzes the thought of Yeghishe Charents, the prominent Armenian poet, and that of Goethe.[16]

Selected publications:

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Աշոտ Վաղինակի Ոսկանյան". parliament.am (in Armenian).
  2. ^ Zenian, David (1 December 1994). "THE ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT: BETWEEN GRIDLOCK AND THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS". AGBU.
  3. ^ "Kocharian Sacks Two Envoys". azatutyun.am. RFE/RL. 1 October 2001.
  4. ^ Zenian, David (1 November 2001). "The Growing Pains of a New Community". AGBU.
  5. ^ "Diplomatic Changes Expected in Armenia". Asbarez. 12 August 1997.
  6. ^ Feilcke, Mania (9 September 2001). "Diplomatisches Parkett". Die Welt (in German).
  7. ^ a b c d "Ashot Voskanyan". archumanities.am. Armenian Research Center in Humanities.
  8. ^ "WHERE ARE WE ARMENIANS AND WHERE ARE WE GOING?". A1plus. 24 March 2006c.
  9. ^ "Only small part of Armenian-Korean cooperation possibilities is being exploited. Armenian MFA representative". Armenpress. 15 April 2013.
  10. ^ "Armenien im Fokus: MESROP feiert Jubiläum" (in German). Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. 11 October 2018.
  11. ^ "Ashot Voskanyan". ica.am. Institute for Contemporary Art, Yerevan.
  12. ^ Poghosyan, Ani (11 May 2018). ""1988 ԹՎԱԿԱՆՆ ԻՆՉ-ՈՐ ԲԱՆԻ ՎԵՐՋՆ ԷՐ, ԻՍԿ ՍԱ ԻՆՉ-ՈՐ ԲԱՆԻ ՍԿԻԶԲՆ Է".ԱՇՈՏ ՈՍԿԱՆՅԱՆ". ysu.am (in Armenian).
  13. ^ "Updated: Group of American University of Armenia Faculty Issues Public Statement in Support of People's Movement". Armenian Weekly. 2 May 2018.
  14. ^ "Հասկացման անխուսափելիությունը".
  15. ^ "Colloquium on Genocide & Literature: Israeli and Armenian Comparative Perspectives". aua.am. American University of Armenia. 14 April 2016.
  16. ^ "Աշոտ Ոսկանյանի "Չարենցի ժամանակը" գրքի շնորհանդեսը" (in Armenian). ShoghakatTV. 9 October 2017.