{"id":6359,"date":"2024-06-22T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/2024\/06\/22\/en-armenia-igf-2024-overview\/"},"modified":"2024-06-22T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T09:00:00","slug":"en-armenia-igf-2024-overview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/2024\/06\/22\/en-armenia-igf-2024-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"9th Armenian Internet Governance Forum (ArmIGF 2024) \u2014 In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest &#038; 3-Line Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/en-armenia-igf-2024-overview_thumbnail-2.svg\" alt=\"Armenia IGF 2024 \u30a8\u30ec\u30d0\u30f3 \u2014 Thumbnail\"><\/p>\n<h2>The 3-Line Summary<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/en-armenia-igf-2024-overview_s3-1.svg\" alt=\"Armenia IGF 2024 \u30a8\u30ec\u30d0\u30f3 \u2014 3-line summary\"><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>The 9th ArmIGF met on 5 November 2024 at the Yerevan Marriott under the theme &#39;Cyber Reality and Secure Digital Future&#39;, with 137 in-person and 15 online participants and British Ambassador John Gallagher at the opening.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The agenda: the &#39;Digital Navy&#39; vision of landlocked Armenia as a data-transit hub, personal data protection under newly adopted laws, international cybersecurity cooperation, WSIS+20 and the Global Digital Compact, and a ccTLD strategy panel uniting the .ru, .ge, .rs and .uz registries.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Marking the .am domain&#39;s 30th anniversary as the UN&#39;s internet-governance review loomed, it showed a small country using its national IGF as digital diplomacy.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Welcome \u2014 this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on <strong>9th Armenian Internet Governance Forum (ArmIGF 2024)<\/strong> draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.<\/p>\n<h2>Conference at a Glance (from official records)<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/en-armenia-igf-2024-overview_h2-1.svg\" alt=\"Armenia IGF 2024 \u30a8\u30ec\u30d0\u30f3 \u2014 Conference at a glance\"><\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Item<\/th>\n<th>Detail<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Official name<\/td>\n<td>9th Armenian Internet Governance Forum (ArmIGF 2024)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Dates<\/td>\n<td>5 November 2024<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Venue<\/td>\n<td>Armenia Marriott Hotel, 1 Amiryan Street, Yerevan (hybrid)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Theme<\/td>\n<td>Cyber Reality and Secure Digital Future<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Participants<\/td>\n<td>152<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Host<\/td>\n<td>The Ministry of High-Tech Industry, the Internet Society NGO and the ISOC Armenia Chapter (the inter-agency ArmIGF group)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Note<\/td>\n<td>Coincided with the 30th anniversaries of the .am ccTLD and the Internet Society NGO<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>(See the source list at the end of this article.)<\/p>\n<h2>Discussion Digest \u2014 from the Session Records<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/en-armenia-igf-2024-overview_minutes-1.svg\" alt=\"Armenia IGF 2024 \u30a8\u30ec\u30d0\u30f3 \u2014 Discussion map\"><\/p>\n<p>Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.<\/p>\n<h3>1. The &#39;Digital Navy&#39; \u2014 Sending a Landlocked Country to Sea<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sessions<\/strong>: Panel &#39;Armenia at a Digital Crossroad \u2014 how to build and lead the Armenian Digital Navy?&#39; (10:45\u201312:00, moderated by RIPE NCC&#39;s Vahan Hovsepyan)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Framed around building a &#39;digital fleet&#39; for exponential small-country growth, the ministry&#39;s digitalisation chief and a national-security expert debated a regional leadership strategy [2][1]<\/li>\n<li>Hovsepyan laid out the case \u2014 Europe\u2013Asia crossroads geography, proximity to Russian, Iranian and Middle Eastern markets, and the OVIO Tier 3 data centre with 200 collocation racks \u2014 for Armenia as a data-transit hub [2][1]<\/li>\n<li>Following 2023&#39;s Black Sea route pitch, connectivity-as-grand-strategy led the agenda for the second straight year [2][1]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>2. Cybersecurity and Free Expression \u2014 The Opening&#39;s Twin Pillars<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sessions<\/strong>: Opening ceremony (10:00\u201310:45) and panel &#39;Cybersecurity Challenges and Issues: Global Best Practices and International Collaboration&#39; (14:00\u201315:00)<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&quot;We believe the Internet should be a space where people can express themselves freely and feel completely safe. In our digitalization agenda, we place great emphasis on staying ahead in terms of cybersecurity and ensuring a cyber-safe environment when developing digital solutions (official report)&quot;<br \/>\n\u2014 <strong>Gevorg Mantashyan (First Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry)<\/strong> [2][4]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&quot;Technology alone cannot solve these issues. We need a collective approach that includes collaboration among stakeholders \u2014 government bodies, businesses, civil society and individual users (official report)&quot;<br \/>\n\u2014 <strong>Ralph Yirikian (General Director, Ucom)<\/strong> [2][4]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Mantashyan described machine-learning and data-analysis tools deployed against misinformation and online threats, while insisting the free-and-open-internet principles stay intact [2][4]<\/li>\n<li>Ambassador John Gallagher argued digital progress requires collaboration across governments, business, civil society and individuals, reaffirming UK engagement [2][4]<\/li>\n<li>The afternoon panel gathered practitioners from multiple countries on international cybersecurity best practice [2][4]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>3. Personal Data Protection \u2014 Implementing the New Legal Acts<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sessions<\/strong>: Panel &#39;Issues of Personal Data Protection in Newly Adopted Legal Acts: Challenges and Solutions&#39; (12:00\u201313:00, moderated by Gevorg Hayrapetyan)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chaired by data-protection chief Gevorg Hayrapetyan, the panel \u2014 including security expert Samvel Martirosyan \u2014 worked through compliance and privacy challenges under newly adopted legislation [1][2]<\/li>\n<li>With data protection recurring in 2018 (GDPR), 2021 (e-health) and 2023\u201324 (new laws), the forum has become the country&#39;s standing checkpoint on the gap between statute and practice [1][2]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>4. WSIS+20 and the Summit of the Future \u2014 One Year Before the Verdict<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sessions<\/strong>: Session &#39;WSIS+20 updates, Future of the IGF, Global Digital Compact and analysis of the Summit of the Future&#39; (15:00\u201316:00, moderated by ICANN&#39;s Mikhail Anisimov)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ICANN&#39;s UN-engagement VP Veni Markovski, IGFSA chair Amrita Choudhury and GFCE&#39;s Chris Buckridge (all online) joined MP Aleksey Sandikov to assess the Global Digital Compact adopted at the September 2024 Summit of the Future and the road to the 2025 WSIS+20 review, including the IGF&#39;s mandate renewal [2][1]<\/li>\n<li>The session framed these milestones as decisive for post-2025 internet governance \u2014 the national IGF acting as a local qualifier for the UN process [2][1]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>5. ccTLDs at 30 \u2014 .am, .ru, .ge, .rs and .uz Compare Strategies<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sessions<\/strong>: Panel &#39;National Content and ccTLDs: Strategies for Growth and Overcoming Challenges&#39; (16:15\u201317:00, moderated by Maria Kolesnikova)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Marking .am&#39;s 30th birthday, registry figures from .ru\/.\u0440\u0444, .ge, .rs and .uz compared growth strategies; Coordination Center director Andrey Vorobyov congratulated the registry on three decades of partnership [2][1][3]<\/li>\n<li>ISOC NGO&#39;s Kristina Hakobyan argued that building local content and national digital identity on .am requires a collective effort across stakeholders [2][1][3]<\/li>\n<li>ISOC chair Igor Mkrtumyan reviewed thirty years of the NGO and the ccTLD, urging plans for the next decades, while ISOC&#39;s Nick Hyrka reminded the room that roughly a third of humanity remains unconnected or badly connected [2][1][3]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Three-Minute Short Talk \u2014 Your Questions Answered<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q. What did this meeting decide?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A. Nothing binding \u2014 but weeks after the UN Summit of the Future and a year before WSIS+20, Armenia&#39;s public and private sectors audited the national digital strategy with international guests, under the theme &#39;Cyber Reality and Secure Digital Future&#39;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q. What stood out?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A. The &#39;Digital Navy&#39;: a landlocked country openly plotting to become an intercontinental data-transit hub on the strength of geography and a Tier 3 data centre.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q. Why should I care?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A. The ccTLD-at-30 strategy panel is every country&#39;s domain-future debate, and the WSIS+20\/IGF-mandate discussion here decided the terms on which global internet governance would be renegotiated in 2025.<\/p>\n<h2>What Is Armenia IGF? (for first-time readers)<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/en-armenia-igf-2024-overview_h1-1.svg\" alt=\"Armenia IGF 2024 \u30a8\u30ec\u30d0\u30f3 \u2014 About Armenia IGF\"><\/p>\n<p>Armenia IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.<\/p>\n<h2>Why It Matters to You<\/h2>\n<p>What was discussed here becomes <strong>the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years<\/strong>. The principles confirmed at the 2024 meeting are the foundation of the &quot;next rules&quot; for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.<\/p>\n<h2>Sources &amp; References<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/armigf.am\/en\/forum2024\/\">The 9th Armenian Internet Governance Forum\uff08\u516c\u5f0f\u30da\u30fc\u30b8\u30fb\u30d7\u30ed\u30b0\u30e9\u30e0\u3068\u767b\u58c7\u8005\uff09<\/a> \u2014 ArmIGF\u516c\u5f0f\u30b5\u30a4\u30c8 (accessed 2026-07-11)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/armigf.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ArmIGF-2024-report.pdf\">ArmIGF 2024 Report &quot;Cyber reality and secure digital future&quot;\uff08\u516c\u5f0f\u5831\u544a\u66f8\u30fb\u82f1\u8a9e\u30fb85\u30da\u30fc\u30b8\uff09<\/a> \u2014 ArmIGF\u516c\u5f0f\u30b5\u30a4\u30c8 (accessed 2026-07-11)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/isoc.live\/18542\/\">WEBCAST NOV 5: Armenia Internet Governance Forum 2024\uff08\u4e2d\u7d99\u6848\u5185\u30fb\u30bb\u30c3\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3\u8a73\u7d30\uff09<\/a> \u2014 ISOC Live (accessed 2026-07-11)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/armenpress.am\/en\/article\/1204125\">Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry attends ArmIGF2024<\/a> \u2014 Armenpress\uff08\u30a2\u30eb\u30e1\u30cb\u30a2\u56fd\u55b6\u901a\u4fe1\uff09 (accessed 2026-07-11)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Related links<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>IGF official (NRI list): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intgovforum.org\/en\/content\/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives\">https:\/\/www.intgovforum.org\/en\/content\/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Japan IGF: <a href=\"https:\/\/japanigf.jp\/\">https:\/\/japanigf.jp\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Yuki Nakazawa&#39;s blog: <a href=\"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/category\/igf\/\">https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/category\/igf\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Revision History<\/h2>\n<p>Rev. 1 \u2014 published 22 June 2024, 11:00 (Article published)<\/p>\n<p>Rev. 2 \u2014 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))<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 \u4e2d\u6fa4\u7950\u6a39<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 9th ArmIGF met on 5 November 2024 at the Yerevan Marriott under the theme &#8216;Cyber Reality and Secure Digital Future&#8217;, with 137 in-person <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,3,11],"tags":[163,388,161,160,162,164],"class_list":["post-6359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armenia-igf","category-igf","category-regional-igf","tag-3-line-summary","tag-armeniaigf2024","tag-deep-dive","tag-english","tag-minutes-digest","tag-sourced"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkzw.jp\/igf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}