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