Guests of Groong Podcast

Avet Adonts

Mr. Avet Adonts is a diplomat who has served Armenia through the ranks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In May, 2007, he was elected as a member of the parliament with the Prosperous Armenia party (BHK - Barkavaj Hayastan), and served as the chair of the standing committee on European integration of the National Assembly. In 2009 Mr. Adonts was appointed Armenia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Belgium, and from 2014 to 2019 he served in Spain. From 2019 to 2021, Mr. Adonts served as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Barlow Der Mugrdechian

Dr. Barlow Der Mugrdechian is a historian and teaches Armenian language, art, literature, history, and culture courses in the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Fresno. His main area of research has been Armenian literature, and he serves as the Berberian Coordinator of the Armenian Studies Program and the Director of the Center for Armenian Studies. In December 2024, Dr. Der Mugrdechian was elected as the president of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS).

Benyamin Poghosyan

Dr. Benyamin Poghosyan is a Senior Research Fellow at APRI Armenia, a Yerevan based think tank,and the Chairman of the Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies. He has served as the vice president for research and head of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense Research University in Armenia. Dr. Poghosyan was a Distinguished Research Fellow at the US National Defense University College of International Security Affairs. He is a graduate from the US State Department Study of the US Institutes for Scholars 2012 Program on US National Security Policy Making. He holds a PhD in history and is a graduate from the 2006 Tavitian Program on International Relations at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Christina Maranci

Christina Maranci is Arthur H. Dadian and Ara T. Oztemel Professor of Armenian art and architectural history and Chair of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University.

Christine A. Arakelian

Christine Arakelian is an attorney in private practice and currently advises Reina Trust Building as its Outside General Counsel. Her corporate and legal experience encompasses corporate financings, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, civil litigation and constitutional law litigation. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Saudi Arabia, an iGorts Fellowship to the Republic of Armenia, a Global Health Law Fellowship by Georgetown Law and an Adjunct Fellowship to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. During law school, Ms. Arakelian worked for the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel and had a TS/SCI clearance. Ms. Arakelian has extensive international experience and expertise and consults globally on matters pertaining to national security, technology, cybersecurity, healthcare, law and finance. She has a B.A. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

David Darchiashvili

Dr. David Darchiashvili is a Former MP of the Georgian Parliament from the party United National Movement (2008-2016). Currently he’s not affilicated with any political parties and concentrates on his research and teaching at Ilia State University Tbilisi, with expertise in International Relations. From 2002-2003 Dr. Darchiashvili was a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C. He has authored many articles and books, one of his latest publications is Georgia: Warlords, Generals, and Politicians, By David Darchiashvili and Stephen Jones, 2020, Oxford Research Encyclopedias.

David Galstyan

David Galstyan is the leader of the Justice faction in the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh.

Դավիթ Գալստյանը Արցախի Հանրապետության Ազգային Ժողովի պատգամավոր և «Արդարություն» խմբակցության ղեկավար։

Diana Yayloyan

Diana Yayloyan is a Research Associate at the Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, working on Armenia-Turkey civil society dialogue supported by the European Union. She is also a Ph.D. Candidate at the Middle East Technical University with a focus on Gender & Peacebuilding.

Douglas A. MacGregor

Col. Douglas MacGregor is a retired colonel in the United States Army, former government official, author, consultant, political commentator, defense and foreign policy analyst, and former advisor to the US secretary of defense.