It is a pleasure to present our Annual Report of 2018 prepared to provide a brief overview of the major events and activities of AVİM during the past year.  

We started the year with the sad news of the passing away of Ambassador Ömer Engin Lütem, the founder and Honorary President of our Center. May he rest in peace.  

The Center for Eurasian Studies has continued its work within our context of Eurasia, a concept that is taking roots and receiving understanding as well as recognition, with focal points on the Balkans and the Caucauses, the wider Black Sea region, the Caspian basin and Central Asian republics.  The centennial of the proclamation of the first independent republics of the three South Caucauses states in 1918, with particular emphasis on the liberation of Baku, have been commemorated and celebrated with ceremonies and various academic events.

The developments in Georgia and Armenia were followed closely. A popular protest movement leading to a “velvet revolution” in Armenia has brought down a corrupt and bigoted administration in power for the past twenty years and raised hopes to break away with the past and to start a new chapter.