H.E. Mr. Tigran Balayan is the newly appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He presented his credentials to His Majesty King Willem-Alexander on November 28th, 2018.
Mr. Balayan was born in the Armenian capital city of Yerevan. This is where he earned a degree in History and International Relations from the Yerevan State University (YSU) in 1999. Three years later, he also acquired a Ph.D. in History, which was in the International Relations department of YSU. During his time as a Ph.D. student, Mr. Balayan was simultaneously studying in the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, while acquiring his degree, he was the assistant to the Permanent Representative of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) in Armenia and was responsible for public relations. Afterward, he was the assistant to the Head of the Political Department in the Embassy of Armenia in Russia until he earned his Ph.D. degree.
After completing his education, Mr. Balayan pursued a career in both diplomacy and education. Between 2002 to 2004, he taught at the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University. During this time, he was also an attaché at the department of Information and Public Relations of the Armenian MFA. Following this position, he became an attaché and later Third Secretary at the NATO division of the Arms Control and International Security Department of the MFA.
From 2004 to 2007, Mr. Balayan served a term at the Embassy of Armenia in the Kingdom of Belgium, Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as the Third and later Second Secretary. Upon returning to Armenia in 2007, he became the acting head of the Media Relations division of the Press and Information department of the MFA. Simultaneously, he took up being a lecturer in the YSU International Relations Department and would maintain this role for the next 10 years. He eventually attained the academic rank of Associate Professor in 2013. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Balayan was the acting spokesperson as well as acting head of the Press and Information department of the MFA.
From 2010 onwards, Mr. Balayan was the spokesperson of the MFA until earlier this year. During this time, he was also the acting head of the Information and Public Diplomacy Department of the MFA for two years before coming to the Netherlands. In addition, he has participated in a multitude of summits and international conferences throughout the decades as a member of the Armenian delegation. Mr. Balayan currently holds the diplomatic rank of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia.
Since October, Mr. Balayan has begun his term as the Ambassador of Armenia to the Netherlands as well as the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the OPCW.
At this moment in time, Mr. Balayan is also the author of more than a dozen scientific articles, as well as the monograph entitled Nagorno-Karabakh Issue and International Diplomacy in 1991-1994. He is likewise the person behind a collection of lectures on Multilateral Diplomacy and Information Support of Foreign Policy.
Throughout his career thus far, Mr. Balayan has amassed numerous awards for his contributions. These include the Medal of “Mkhitar Gosh”; the Medal of Gratitude of the Artsakh Republic; the Medal of NKR MFA 20th Anniversary; the Medal of “John Kirakosyan”; and the Medal of “Vazgen Sargsyan” of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia. Furthermore, he has received letters of appreciation from the President, Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister of Armenia.
In addition to Russian and English, Mr. Balayan is also fluent in French.
The diplomat community in The Hague sends a warm welcome to Ambassador Balayan and wishes him all the best in his new term.
