EU-RESPOND HNS TTX - Design meeting Armenia - April 2026

The Design meeting - Armenia

On 14–17 April 2026, the first Design Meeting of the EU-RESPOND project was held in Yerevan, Armenia, in preparation for the upcoming Host Nation Support (HNS) Tabletop Exercise. The meeting was organized by the Project Coordinator, TDS-Group, in close cooperation with the Educational Complex of Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The objective was to establish the operational and methodological foundation of the exercise through a structured baseline assessment of the national HNS system and the joint definition of the exercise framework.

EU-RESPOND Coordination meeting - Emil Margaryan, Armine Hayrapetyan & Christophe Debray

Key Highlights

🔹 Exercise design sessions, refining the hazard scenario, clarifying logistical and institutional framework conditions, and confirming the timeline and next steps.

🔹 Meetings with national authorities, including the Rector of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, M. Muradyan, ensuring a shared understanding of roles, procedures and exercise objectives among Armenian authorities, the consortium and EU stakeholders.

🔹 An Awareness Training with 20+ representatives from Armenian ministries and institutions to strengthen their understanding of the UCPM and HNS.

🔹 A Site visit to the Lusakert Training Center, hosted by Nver Margaryan, Head of the Civil Defense Unit, confirming its suitability as the operational base for the TTX.

EU-RESPOND Site visit at the Lusakert Training Center

The Participants

We sincerely thank our Armenian partners for their warm welcome, outstanding hospitality and excellent cooperation, with special appreciation to Armine Hayrapetyan and the leadership of the Educational Complex of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for their essential support:

Manuk Muradyan, Rector
Misak Markosyan, Vice-Rector for the Coordination of Educational Activities
Emil Margaryan, Vice-Rector for Coordination of Research and Innovation Activities
Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, Head of the Rescue Service and the Crisis Management Division
Hayarpi Keshishyan, Acting Head of the Internal Cooperation Department
Nver Margaryan, Head of the Civil Defense Unit at the Lusakert Training Center

The Consortium & Core-team participants:

TDS-Group: Christophe Debray, Célie Quénet
Resilience Solutions : Christian Resch
Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Crisis Management (DGSCGC) - France : Frédéric Harrault
Directorate-General for Civil Protection (DGCP-IBZ) - Belgium : Anna Baetens
⁠Ministry of Internal Affairs Educational Complex: Armine Hayrapetyan