In September Civilitas founder Vartan Oskanian received International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Chief of Mission to Armenia Mark Horton, Resident Representative Guillermo Tolosa, Mission Economist Carlos Caceres, and Economist Anna Roze Bordon. The group discussed economic trends and developments in Armenia, the nature of upcoming Civilitas initiatives, including polling and CivilNet.TV, a daily Internet news and researched based channel.

Another Civilitas visitor AGBU President Berge Setrakian visited CivilNet.TV. Mr. Oskanian, Mr. Setrakian and Mr. Yervant Zorian of AGBU spoke about AGBU’s activities in Armenia. Mr. Setrakian applauded the energy display by the young team at Civilitas.

During the last week Civilitas Director Salpi Ghazarian also talked to a group of Swedish post-graduate students who visited Georgia and Armenia to learn about the region, establish contacts with leading organizations and develop their understanding of geopolitical realities in the Southern Caucasus. These young scholars were interested to learn about Armenia-Turkey relations, possible economic developments within the next decade, the role of the Armenian Diaspora in Armenia and civil society programs.

A group of pilgrims from France were interested in Armenia’s religious history, the role of the church historically and today, the nature of church-state relations, as well as geopolitical realities in the region and Armenia’s relations with neighbor countries.