The 3-Line Summary
- The 1st Armenian Internet Governance Forum met in Yerevan on 7–8 September 2015 under the theme 'Multistakeholder approach to the National Internet Governance', covering six tracks from new media and net neutrality to content and cybersecurity over two days.
- The programme featured opening keynotes by ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé and ISOC European Bureau Director Frédéric Donck, with Armenia's justice minister joining a panel; topics ranged from the IANA transition and the .հայ Armenian-script domain to Russia's website blacklist practice.
- It established the national-IGF format early in the Caucasus — a government-business-civil-society dialogue that joined the wave of national IGFs consolidating worldwide in 2015.
Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on 1st Armenian Internet Governance Forum (ArmIGF 2015) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.
Conference at a Glance (from official records)
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | 1st Armenian Internet Governance Forum (ArmIGF 2015) |
| Dates | 7–8 September 2015 |
| Venue | Yerevan (breakout sessions in the Ani, Nairi and Dvin halls) |
| Theme | Multistakeholder approach to the National Internet Governance |
| Host | Organised by the multistakeholder Internet Governance Council (IGC) of Armenia with the support of the Ministry of Transport and Communication and the Internet Society NGO (ISOC Armenia) |
(See the source list at the end of this article.)
Discussion Digest — from the Session Records
Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.
1. Implementing the Multistakeholder Model at Home — The Founding Question
Sessions: Day 1 session 'Multi-Stakeholder Model of Internet Governance for Armenia' (7 Sept, 10:00–10:30, Grigori Saghyan, VP of ISOC Armenia)
- Built around the Internet Governance Council (IGC) created by a 2014 government decision, the forum brought government, business, academia and NGOs to one table for the first time [1][3]
- ISOC's retrospective ('The Lessons Learnt') noted how hard multistakeholderism is to implement with limited resources — and how engaging the ministry and local businesses as partners from day one, delegating sessions and speakers to them, made it work [1][3]
- Participants from Georgia, Russia, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan brought regional policy perspectives, making the first edition cross-border from the start [1][3]
2. Network Neutrality — Operators and the Regulator on One Stage
Sessions: Session 'Network Neutrality' (7 Sept, 16:00–17:30, Ani Hall)
- Holly Raiche of ICANN's ALAC keynoted, joined by panellists from leading carrier VivaCell-MTS (K-Telecom), ISP Arpinet and the Public Services Regulatory Commission [2]
- With the ARMIX internet-exchange foundation also at the table, the operator-regulator-technical-community triangle mirrored the net-neutrality battles then raging worldwide [2]
3. Content Regulation and Free Expression — Russia's 'Blacklist' as a Cautionary Tale
Sessions: Session 'Content' (8 Sept, 11:30–13:00, Nairi Hall)
- The keynote came from Sargis Darbinyan, a lawyer fighting Russia's website-blacklist regime, presented as a cautionary tale for Armenia's own rulemaking [2]
- Justice Minister Arpine Hovhannisyan, Wikimedia Armenia, Mediamax and the police shared one panel — government, media and civil society debating where content regulation should stop [2]
4. The .հայ IDN and the IANA Transition — Global Resources Seen from a Small Country
Sessions: Day 1 morning talks (.հայ IDN; Universal Acceptance; ICANN accountability and the IANA transition)
- Lianna Galstyan presented Armenia's own-script IDN .հայ, while RNIDS chair Dušan Stojičević reported on Universal Acceptance progress for non-Latin domains [2]
- ICANN VP Michael Yakushev briefed the room on the IANA stewardship transition — completed the following year — bringing a turning point in global internet resource management to a national forum [2]
5. Child Safety and Cybersecurity — Day 2's Social Track
Sessions: Day 2 morning talks and the 'Cyber Security' session (11:30–13:00, Dvin Hall)
- Short talks covered child online safety (Safer Internet Armenia), the national research and education network, and intellectual property versus free access [2]
- The cybersecurity panel was keynoted by the justice ministry's head of legislation, with UCom, OWASP and the employers' union bringing practitioners' views [2]
Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered
Q. What did this meeting decide?
A. Nothing binding — it was Armenia's first two-day forum where government, business and civil society debated internet issues as equals, with the outcomes delivered as messages to policymakers.
Q. What stood out?
A. The line-up: ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé and Armenia's justice minister on the programme of a first-ever national forum, debating net neutrality and Russia-style website blocking in a small-country context.
Q. Why should I care?
A. Around 2015 national IGFs were launching worldwide, and ArmIGF is a textbook case. Its debates on own-script domains and net neutrality map directly onto every country's language-domain and telecom-policy questions.
What Is Armenia IGF? (for first-time readers)
Armenia IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.
Why It Matters to You
What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2015 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.
Sources & References
- ARMIGF 2015 – Armenian Internet Governance Forum（公式アーカイブ） — ArmIGF公式サイト (accessed 2026-07-11)
- ArmIGF 2015 Schedule（公式プログラム・全セッションと登壇者） — ArmIGF公式サイト (accessed 2026-07-11)
- The First Armenian Internet Governance Forum: The Lessons Learnt（直接取得は403のため検索スニペットで内容確認） — ISOC (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Armenian Internet Governance Forum (ArmIGF)（系列概要・2015年開始の主催者説明） — Internet Society NGO（ISOC Armenia、.am/.հայレジストリ） (accessed 2026-07-11)
Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.
Related links
- IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
- Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
- Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/
Revision History
Rev. 1 — published 4 June 2015, 11:00 (Article published)
Rev. 2 — updated 17 July 2026, 12:32 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))
— 中澤祐樹
