Armenia has experienced a series of transformative events since the late 1980s – the Karabagh movement, independence, war, and political as well as economic transitions. These events have attracted considerable scholarly and journalistic attention. But Armenia has undergone significant ideological shifts as a nation-state which have attracted less attention. Shortly after the birth of the Karabagh Movement, some of the prized assumptions of Armenian nationalism and politics came under assault. The ideology of the Armenian Cause in particular, despite slogans about class politics and socialist internationalism, has been embraced even by Armenian Communists since the end of WWII. These ideologies have been the subject of hitherto unprecedented intellectual scrutiny. From the very early years of independence a parallel conversation involving Armenia’s political class has debated competing visions of a liberal vs. a “national” state. These debates continue to this day. The recent publication of Levon Ter-Petrossian’s speeches, articles, and interviews now available to an English-speaking audience will be deployed to revisit these debates, looking at them through the eyes of one of its most important actors, the first President of Armenia (1991-98).

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