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Armenia’s new consul in Los Angeles pledges better constituency services and outreach

Interview with newly appointed Consul General Grigor Hovhanissian

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Thursday February 19, 2009

Grigor Hovhanissian, Armenia’s consul general in Los Angeles.

Grigor Hovhanissian comes to Los Angeles after two and a half years as executive director of the Shushi Revival Fund, an Armenian government entity. Prior to that, Mr. Hovhanissian worked from 1993 to 2006 for the United Nations in field offices in Armenia, Africa, and the Middle East.  Born in 1971, Mr. Hovhanissian is a graduate of the Middle East Studies department of Yerevan State University and has a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Mr. Hovhanissian spoke with the Armenian Reporter's Emil Sanamyan on February 12, about a week into his posting. They discussed Mr. Hovhanissian's background and plans in the new assignment.

From Arabic studies to the heart of Africa

AR: How did you begin working for the United Nations?

GH: I did a year of postgraduate study in Beirut, where I met some UN people working with Shiite refugees in Lebanon and did some research work for them.

And when I went back to Armenia, I had an offer from the local UN office to do something similar, working with Armenian refugees displaced mostly from Azerbaijan but also from Central Asia. That was my first exposure and experience with international civil service. In 1993-94, I helped design and implement shelter projects for refugee resettlement in various parts of Armenia.

AR: And from Armenia you went to Congo. . . .

GH: Yes, it was actually the Great Lakes region of Africa, specifically the province of Kivu in the eastern part of what at the time was known as Zaire. Since I knew French [which is widely spoken there] and already had experience with refugee protection and resettlement, I was offered [a chance] to go there.

It was in the early aftermath of the Rwanda genocide, and we had to deal with a number of issues from security to crisis management. Those countries - Rwanda, Burundi, as well as Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, the Central African Republic - are still coping with the aftermath of that genocide.

AR: It must have been tremendous for someone learned about the Armenian experience to find himself in Rwanda immediately after the genocide. . . .

GH: That was a real issue for me. Imagine a relatively inexperienced young man getting involved in things like forensic expertise of mass graves and seeing an army, millions of people fleeing in search of security. I was grateful to my colleagues who realized the special sensitivity I had to this situation. [That experience] marked me big time.

From the Great Lakes I was posted to a more political-coordination position with the UN office in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, dealing with UN mediation in the civil wars both in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) and Congo-Brazzaville.

AR: This is a bit off topic, but our readers like to know about Armenians in exotic places. Did you meet many in Congo?

GH: Yes, of course. Not just in Congo, but in even less frequented places. There are plenty of natural resources in that area, diamonds in particular, and our compatriots from as far away as Lebanon and France reached all the way to the rainforest.

I saw a small Armenian chapel in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. And in fact one of the senior officials in that country's former regime was a Lebanese Armenian.

And in Zimbabwe, there was a prominent doctor Levon - I forget his family name. He first arrived there with the Soviet mission to UNESCO, and eventually settled down and opened his own clinic. There were a few [Armenian] families in Namibia. Armenians from Armenia found their way to South Africa.

Since I traveled most of the continent, and was specifically looking for compatriots, I could find at least a few Armenians in almost every country I visited.

AR: And then it was on to the Middle East. . . .

GH: Yes. From 2000 to 2004 I was working in Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, dealing with the crisis in the Palestinian territories. And from 2004 to 2006, I was with the UN Mission for Iraq, which because of the security situation was remote-operated. I was senior advisor to the special representative of the UN Secretary General, based in Amman, Jordan.

That was the period when the U.S. was transferring authority to the Iraqi government, and we were dealing with capacity building for that government. But our real presence [in Iraq] was extremely limited. We were doing in-and-outs to the "Green Zone" [area of central Baghdad heavily protected by U.S. forces].

AR: And I imagine you had come into contact with Iraqi-Armenians who were displaced to Jordan?

GH: Yes of course. And in Iraq itself, the UN mission as well as other international offices had a number of ethnic Armenian employees as well.

And you will recall that for many years our compatriot [from Cyprus], Benon Sevan, headed the very important [oil-for-food] operation dealing with Iraq. It was a great regret and disappointment when unverified and outright accusations made this very prominent person resign after a very long and productive career with the United Nations.