Glendale Mayor Elen Asatryan will travel to Armenia from June 11-20, 2024, to participate, in part, in the U.S.-Armenia Local Democracy Forum organized by the U.S. State Department with Mayors and Executives from cities around the United States. Mayor Asatryan will arrive ahead of the delegation on the night of June 11, 2024. The goal of the trip is to enhance bilateral relations, explore economic opportunities, and foster cultural and educational exchanges between Armenia and Glendale, and beyond.
The Mayor’s itinerary includes visits to Yerevan, Gyumri, and, time permitting, possibly Kapan. The trip will also include meetings with Armenian local government officials, media outlets, business leaders, and community organizations. Asatryan will also participate in panels and discussions focused on strengthening relations with Armenia, sister city relations, democracy, efficient government structures, sustainability, trade, tourism, and technology partnerships.
Reflecting on the trip, Mayor Asatryan stated, “I am thrilled to return to my birthplace Armenia as the Mayor of Glendale – home to the largest concentration of Armenians outside of Armenia, making up roughly 40% of our city’s population. As the fourth largest city in LA County and home to the largest immigrant/foreign-born population in California, Glendale and Armenia are intertwined in every way. This trip represents an incredible opportunity to deepen our connections, share knowledge, and create meaningful collaborations that benefit both Glendale and Armenia.”
Asatryan last visited Armenia in December 2022-January 2023 to join Armenia’s Opera House as she helped establish a partnership between Armenia’s Opera House and Los Angeles Opera. During that visit, Asatryan also visited Glendale’s Sister Cities Gyumri and Kapan and was the first Glendale elected official to do so since Gyumri and Glendale became sister cities in 2015 and the first city elected official to visit Kapan since 2009. Asatryan was unable to visit Glendale’s Sister City Martuni, Artsakh at the time due to the blockade.
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Upon her return, Mayor Asatryan initiated a review of Glendale’s current sister city policies, which she felt lacked proper structures, accountability, and staffing to ensure that initiatives, programs, and exchanges actually took place beyond visits and MOUs on paper. This item is scheduled to come to a discussion and vote at the Glendale City Council meeting next month. If Asatryan garners the support from her council colleagues, this will pave the way for structured committees and more support and productive bilateral relations. Asatryan also called for Glendale to create an Artsakh Fund during the blockade, encouraging larger Glendale organizations to donate and will use the trip as an opportunity to see how the funds can go to refugees from Martuni Artsakh, who were forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands. Mayor Asatryan has also noted that she plans to lead a city delegation during her tenure as Mayor and bring along experts and economic opportunities based on sister city needs.
About Mayor Asatryan
Mayor Elen Asatryan is an award-winning human and civil rights activist, community advocate, and businesswoman. Born in Yerevan, Armenia, and immigrating to Glendale, CA, at the age of 10, Asatryan shattered glass ceilings as the first immigrant woman, first Armenian-American woman, and the 7th woman in the history of Glendale to be elected to the City Council and serve as Mayor. She brings over 24 years of experience in policy and advocacy, political campaigns, public affairs, community organizing, and nonprofit development.
Mayor Elen Asatryan is an award-winning human and civil rights activist, community advocate, and businesswoman. Born in Yerevan, Armenia, and immigrating to Glendale, CA, Mayor Asatryan shattered glass ceilings as the first immigrant woman, first Armenian-American woman, and the 7th woman in the history of Glendale to be elected to the City Council and serve as Mayor. She brings over 24 years of experience in policy and advocacy, political campaigns, public affairs, community organizing, and nonprofit development.
Asatryan , 41, was elected to the Glendale City Council in 2022, finishing second in a field of eight candidates, surpassing by a wide margin former mayors Ara Najarian and Vrej Agajanian and broke historic record in Glendale by garnering more votes than the two incumbents as a newcomer in a race with no open seats and the highest woman vote getter in the history of the city.
In just the 2 short years she has served on Council, Asatryan has championed initiatives never previously done so by council. From making economic development and creating efficient structures in city hall as 2 of 4 priority areas for the first time in the history of the city, initiating code changes, permitting processes for homeowners and small businesses to cut the bureaucratic red tape at city hall, taking on the lack of proper communication and outreach by the city to the diverse communities and especially those with language barriers and inability to navigate and access resources programs and services, initiating the now successful Small Business Summit to connect small business owners with local, regional, state and federal resources, family leave, childcare on campus, women’s rights, minority owned and women owned businesses and equity programming and procurement, to addressing the inequity gaps and unintended consequences of many policies and programs from affordable housing and sustainability measures which leave out low-middle class residents and add burdens to small businesses without support and so much more.
Prior to being elected to the council, spanning over two decades, Asatryan spearheaded and led successful initiatives and campaigns on the local, state, and federal level, which include: ensuring equal access and representation at government entities; creating public policy fellowship and internship programs for high school and college students, and recent college graduates; establishing the Glendale Domestic Violence Task Force; expanding green space and access to programs for low-income families and marginalized communities; launching and implementing voter registration, education, and GOTV initiatives, which resulted in registering over 50,000 new voters in LA County alone, leading to record-breaking voter turnout in some of the most competitive elections; securing recognition for the Armenian Genocide and Republic of Artsakh, and adoption of Genocide education curriculum in CA public schools.
Prior to founding her political consulting and public affairs firm in 2017, The Stark Group, for more than eleven years, Mayor Asatryan served as the Executive Director of the nation’s largest Armenian political grassroots organization, the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region, first at its Glendale chapter for more than six years and then the Western Region offices, where she was responsible for strategy, policy as programs development and implementation, and day-to-day operations of the regional headquarters and its local chapters in the 19 Western U.S. States.
Mayor Asatryan is also an elected member of the California Democratic Party State Central Committee and the Los Angeles Democratic Party County Central committee. She has also served and continues to serve on various Committees and Boards of local and regional organizations including Commissioner of the Burbank Airport Authority, Vice Chair of the National Women’s Political Caucus GP, Commissioner at the Burbank Airport Authority, Vice-Chair of the National Women’s Political Caucus GP, Chair of City of Glendale Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission, LA County Voter Outreach Committee, Glendale Youth Alliance, and Superintendent’s Advisory Committee and others.
Mayor Asatryan is a graduate of UCLA, where she studied Political Science with concentrations in American Politics and International Relations.
