In total, more than 100 researchers from Armenia, the USA, the Russian Federation, India, Iran, Georgia, Abkhazia, Germany, France, Great Britain, Holland, Serbia, as well as from the autonomous republics of North Ossetia-Alania, Chechnya, Adygea, Dagestan, Kalmykia, and Udmurtia participated in the six international epic conferences held in Armenia.
The 1st International Epic Conference was held in Tsakhkadzor from November 4 to 6, 2003. The conference was called “The Armenian “Sasna Tsrer” Epic and the World Epic Heritage”, and was organized by the joint initiative of two institutes of the NAS of the Republic of Armenia: the Institute of Literature named after M. Abeghyan and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, as well as with the assistance of the National Commission of Armenia for UNESCO.
The second conference was held 3 years later, on June 23-24, 2006 in Tsaghkadzor and Talin, with a slightly changed title: “The Armenian Folk Epic and the World Epic Heritage”, and this time with the support of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, but again at the initiative of the same institutes.
The 3rd Conference on Epic Studies was organized by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the RA National Academy of Sciences and the Research Center for Armenian Literature of the Armenian-Russian (Slavonic) University, and was held in Yerevan from November 12 to 14, 2009, under the title “The Armenian Folk Epic and the World Epic Heritage”.
The 4th Conference on Epic Studies was held again in Tsaghkadzor in 2012, оctober 8-10, this time only at the initiative of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, but like the previous three conferences, mainly through the efforts of Professor Azat Yeghiazaryan. The conference had a special thematic focus – it was dedicated to the epics of the Armenian and Caucasian peoples and the connections between them.
The 5th Conference was held from October 11 to 13, 2017 at the Slavonic University, the organizers were the Armenian-Russian (Slavonic) University, the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the NAS of the Republic of Armenia and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
After a seven-year break, the 6th International Conference took place, this time under the title “Epic, Identity and Culture”, at the initiative of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography and with the support of the All-Armenian Fund for Armenological Studies. The conference was dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first known story of the epic, “David of Sasun or the Door of Mher”, which in fact marked the one and a half century anniversary of the scientific study of “Sasna Tsrer”.