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  • Professor Yuri Barseghov Dies

    PROFESSOR YURI BARSEGHOV DIES

    Noyan Tapan
    http://www.nt.am/news.php?shownews=116337
    Au g 8, 2008

    YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, NOYAN TAPAN. Prof.Yuri Barseghov, Foreign Member of
    the RA National Academy of Sciences, member of the UN International
    Law Commission, director of the Armenian Institute of International
    Law and Political Science, J.D., died in Moscow late August 6.

    He was born on March 7, 1925 in Tiflis (Tbilisi).

    Y. Barseghov attended school No 47 in Tbilisi. The school instruction
    was in Ruusian, and many teachers were from Russian schools of Kars
    that had been given to Turkey by that time. Living in Tbilisi, Yuri
    witnessed many tragic events in the fate of the Armenian people. He
    saw many Armenian refugees.

    Later when he met American journalist Michael Arlen, editor of the New
    Yorker magazine, and read his book "Passage to Ararat" in which the
    author tells how he, an Armenian by nationality, became an American
    by the name Michael Arlen, Y. Barseghov realized why his parents gave
    him a Russian name and why he studied at a Russian school, while his
    mother taught at an Armenian one.

    In 1945 Yuri entered the Moscow State Institute on International
    Relations (MGIMO). Upon graduation, he received the qualification
    "lawyer, French translator" and an honors degree. At that time one
    of the impulses that made him study the problem of the Armenian
    Genocide was the decision to raise the issue of correcting the
    historical injustice at the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference of the heads
    of the great powers: the Soviet government started showing interest
    in this issue after the end of World War II. In 1950 Josef Stalin
    raised the issue of return of Armenian territories before the allied
    powers. MGIMO graduate Yuri Barseghov decided to study this burning
    issue professionally and wrote a degree paper on the subject "The
    Armenian Territories in International Legal Acts". By 1953 Y. Barseghov
    prepared a thesis on the same subject but literally a few weeks before
    the thesis defence, it was announced that the Soviet government again
    considered it possible to give up territorial claims to Turkey. The
    thesis became "no-go".

    In the 20th century the problem of recognition of the genocide of
    Armenians committed by Turkey and the fate of native Armenian lands
    rose again to the level of world politics. During 6 months, Barseghov
    wrote a new thesis entitled "Territory in International Law" based on
    the first theoretical chapter of the old one. The new thesis became
    the first monographic research on this important subject. In late
    1953 he defended the thesis.

    After completing the MGIMO post-graduate courses, Barseghov started
    to work as deputy head, then as head of the editorial staff for
    literature on the issues of international relations, diplomacy and
    law at "Foreign Literature" Publishing House.

    In 1958 Y. Barseghov published a book (with the same title) on the
    basis of his thesis. At that time it was quite difficult to publish
    a work on this subject. The book was the only one of its kind.

    In 1962 Y. Barseghov started to serve in the UN Secretariat. In
    1969-1972 he was the head of the unit of international organizations
    at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IWEIR)
    of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1972 he began to work as special
    assistant to the UN Deputy Secretary-General at the UN Secretariat.

    In 1979 Barseghov retuned to IWEIR and in the same year he began
    teaching at the international law department of the Peoples' Friendship
    University in Moscow and received the title of professor.

    In 1984 Y. Barseghov defended his doctoral thesis on the subject "The
    International Legal Foundations of Solution of the Global Problem of
    Developing the World Ocean" at the Diplomatci Academy of the USSR MFA.

    In 1994-1997 Barseghov took part in the work of the OSCE Minsk Group
    on Nagorno Karabakh. In 1999 he founded the Armenian Institute
    of International Law and Political Science which he headed until
    his death.

    Y. Barseghov was also a member of the Maritime Law Association and
    the International Law Association of Russia from the time of their
    foundation.

    He was awarded a Mkhitar Gosh medal (Armenia, in 2000), a Mesrop
    Mashtots medal (NKR, in 2000), medals "For Victory over Germany" and
    "For Defence of the Caucasus" and other decorations.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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