In 1997 Presidium Members of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, seeing the existence of an Armenological structure in Gyumri as appropriate and timely, decided to establish the Shirak Material and Spiritual Culture Centre on the spot, which operated as a branch of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography NAS RA until 2002. Since 2003, the Centre has had the status of an independent State Non-Profit Organisation (SNPO) and has been renamed The Shirak Center for Armenological Studies of NAS RA, which is now the only non-capital Armenological structure of the NAS RA system, with its 22 employees (scientific staff: 18 researchers, 2 Doctors of Sciences, 14 Candidates of Sciences). The main scientific directions of the Centre have been the ethnography of the historical Shirak province, old and new history, archaeology and folklore challenges, as well as ethnopsychological and sociological research conducted in the current territory of the region from the day of its establishment.

EDUCATION: 2000 graduated from the historical faculty of Gyumri Pedagogical Institute named after M. Nalbandian, in 2003 - postgraduate course of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia
SCIENTIFIC AND ACADEMIC DEGREES: Ph.D. in Histօry, Associate professor.
SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS: The modern period in the history of Armenia.
PUBLISHED WORKS: 4 monographs, 1 methodical manual, 90 scientific articles.
WORKING EXPERIENCE: 2004-2018 senior scientific researcher in Shirak Center for Armenological Studies NAS RA, 2003-until now senior scientific researcher in the Department of New History of IS NAS RA, 2003-until now associate professor in the Department of History and Philosophy in SSU, since 2019- director of Shirak Center for Armenological Studies NAS RA.
MEMBERSHIP: Since 2013 Member of the Academic Council of Shirak Center for Armenological Studies NAS RA, since 2019 Chairman of the Council.
AWARDS: Certificate of Honour and Praise by president of NAS RA, Certificate of Praise of NAS RA, Certificate of Honour of the Governor of the Shirak region of RA
Phones: +374-94213841, +374-43213841
E.mails: a.hayrapetyan@shirakcenter.sci.am, armenani@mail.ru