The American University of Armenia (AUA) resumed in-person classes on Tuesday one day after suspending them in response to neighboring Iran’s threats to target U.S.-affiliated campuses in the region.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened such “retaliation” after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes reportedly destroyed two Iranian universities on the night from Friday to Saturday. It warned “all employees, professors, and students of American universities in the region and residents of their surrounding areas” to stay a kilometer away from campuses.
The AUA administration responded by deciding to hold all classes online on Monday. It said it took the “precautionary measure” despite “no indication that we are in any kind of danger.”
The Yerevan-based university, which has some 2,800 graduate and undergraduate students, announced its decision to revert to in-person teaching in a statement released late on Monday.
“As of earlier today we have received assurance from the Armenia Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport that they are confident that there is no significant or substantial risk to the University, and that in-person classes can be resumed as usual,” said the statement. “By the decision of the AUA Emergency Operations and Crisis Management Committee, based on that information, all classes will resume in-person starting tomorrow, Tuesday, March 31.”
The ministry made no public statements on the issue. The AUA, which is affiliated with University of California, was founded by Armenian-American charities and philanthropists in 1991.
The Armenian government has reacted cautiously to the continuing war in the Middle East triggered by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. It has refrained from criticizing the U.S.-Israeli military campaign while delivering an unpublicized amount of humanitarian aid to the Islamic Republic. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi thanked Yerevan for its “support” after a weekend phone call with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.
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