Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Jivan Tabibian -- 1937-2009

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Jivan Tabibian -- 1937-2009

    PRESS RELEASE
    The Civilitas Foundation
    One Northern Ave. Suite 30
    Yerevan, Armenia
    Telephones: +37494.800754; +37410.500119
    email: [email protected]
    web: www.civilitasfoundation.org

    JIVAN TABIBIAN -- 1937-2009

    Mr. Jivan Tabibian, political theorist, diplomat, teacher, government
    affairs consultant, design and cinema consultant, food critic and
    restaurateur, cigar aficionado, systems designer and member of the Civilitas
    Foundation Honorary Board, passed away in Vienna, Austria, on July 31, 2009.

    Mr. Tabibian, whose rich career in academia, international organizations,
    government and business took him all over the world, had been for the last
    decade, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the
    Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He retired from that
    post in 2008. For most of that period, he was also Armenia's ambassador to
    Hungary, Austria, Czech and Slovakia.

    However, during his decade-long tenure, Mr. Tabibian became a mainstay of
    that organization's Permanent Council - a weekly conclave of the ambassadors
    of the transatlantic organization's 56 member states. Week in, week out,
    his cogent analyses and commentaries on global events of international
    consequence, were more than the position of the Republic of Armenia. As many
    in the organization said, they served as food for thought and guidance for
    the organization's policies and planning.

    Born in 1937 in Lebanon, he was educated in the Armenian schools of Beirut,
    and at the American University of Beirut. He moved to the US in 1959 and
    attended Princeton University where he completed his doctoral studies. He
    also studied at the Sorbonne and at Centre d'Etudes Diplomatiques et
    Strategiques in Paris.

    His academic appointments included the University of California, Los
    Angeles (Political Science, Middle Eastern Studies, Urban Design and
    Community Psychiatry), the University of Southern California (Urban
    and Regional Planning, Social Policy), the California Institute of the
    Arts (Design Theory), Wake Forest University (Political Theory and
    International Politics.) Also, he was founder and director of the
    program of the School of Management and Strategic Studies at the
    Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California.

    His planning and public policy consultation work had taken him to
    international assignments in Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala, Iran, the
    United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and throughout Japan. His first
    trip to Armenia was in 1963.

    The main focus of his projects in Armenia were urban, regional and economic
    development.

    After Armenia's independence in 1991, Mr. Tabibian collaborated on various
    socio-economic development programs. His activities centered around issues
    of energy, health care, economic development and political-diplomatic
    affairs. He was part of the initial team of experts to assess the energy
    needs of the Republic of Armenia and develop a master energy strategy. He
    was critically involved in the promotion and reactivation of the Metsamor
    Nuclear Power Plant.

    His work in the Diaspora extended from being a founding member and officer
    of ARPA (Advanced Research and Planning in Armenia), an early associate of
    the Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation,
    as well as a commentator for Armenian International Magazine.

    Beyond his work in the Armenian community, he was a noted design commentator
    and cinema consultant. He worked with the International Design Conference in
    Aspen, as well as Robert Redford's Sundance Institute of Film and
    Television.

    Following his retirement from the post of ambassador, Mr. Tabibian joined
    the Honorary Board of the Civilitas Foundation. Mr. Vartan Oskanian,
    President of the Board of the Civilitas, was the foreign minister who
    invited Mr. Tabibian to represent Armenia in Vienna. `Jivan's counsel,
    wisdom, humor, insights were invaluable and incomparable. He will be missed
    for many reasons, chief among them his ability to see Armenian issues and
    global issues with equal sharpness, and his capacity to identify and explain
    the real, fundamental issues at the core of each.'

    He leaves behind his wife Isabella Cho Tabibian. He is also survived by a
    son and a daughter, Jivan Jr. and Marie, his sisters- Olympia Jebejian and
    Ani Hagopian - and their families in the US, as well as countless friends,
    students and colleagues around the world who will miss him sorely.

    The memorial service will take place at the Yerevan St. Hovannes Church in
    Kond at 4 pm on Friday August 7. The interment will follow.

    Condolences will be accepted by the Armenian Embassy in Vienna (*
    [email protected]) *or by the Civilitas Foundation in Yerevan (
    [email protected])

    At the family's request, in lieu of flowers donations will support Jivan R.
    Tabibian Fellowships at the Civilitas Foundation. (Yerevan Address: One
    Northern Avenue, Suite 30, Yerevan, Armenia. US Address: 315 Arden avenue,
    Suite 1, Glendale, California, 91203.)
Working...
X