Heritage Intel engages and provides solutions to a variety of challenges - from offering something as in-depth as investigating covert human rights violations to expedited consultations on community growth prospects, from assessing something as global as crises caused by geopolitical conflicts to assisting in something as local as helping a local community's bilingual learning needs. Below are examples of some of our work, including our founder's high-profile investigative research.
Investigative Research
In 2019, Maghakyan's decade-long investigation ("A Regime Conceals Its Erasure of Indigenous Armenian Culture," co-authored with Sarah Pickman in Hyperallergic) exposed a covert, state-sponsored campaign of the total destruction of an estimated 28,000 medieval monuments. The widely-cited groundbreaking investigation has been described as "rock-solid" by The Guardian.
Bilingual Education
In 2017, as part of his community development coordination for a national grassroots organization, Maghakyan identified and solved a national need for bilingual civics education by producing an online training for native Armenian speakers wishing to learn the American Citizenship Civics.
Geospatial Analysis
In 2021, in collaboration with the Cornell University-based Caucasus Heritage Watch, Maghakyan conducted a geospatial analysis of the historical landscape in Agulis through newly-declassified Cold War era satellite imagery. The AGBU-funded investigation, published in The Art Newspaper, was cited at the International Court of Justice in 2021 and by the US State Department in 2022. Earlier in 2009-10, Maghakyan initiated and collaborated on the pioneer satellite investigation of cultural destruction by compelling the American Association for the Advancement of Science to expand its Satellite for Human Rights Project to cultural rights.
Expert Testimony
In 2006-2014, as part of his service at Amnesty International USA, Maghakyan provided expert witness testimony on human rights issues in the countries of the former Soviet Union and Turkey in US federal courts. Every single of his testimonies resulted in the protection of at-risk individuals.
Corporate Social Responsibility
In 2020, Maghakyan led a series of research-based grassroots outreach to military corporations, with the aim of achieving the adoption of civilian harm mitigation corporate social responsibility policy. Earlier, both in public testimony, private meetings, and media outreach, Maghakyan advocated one of America’s largest public retirement funds to adopt a principled platform of genocidal government-owned bond divestment.
Preservation Politics Assessment
In 2014, funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation, Maghakyan conducted field research in Eastern and Central Turkey on the subject of political factors that hinder or support cultural preservation. One of his recommendations was "Birthright Anatolia" - an effort that Turkish authorities could engage it in to invite the descendants of displaced indigenous communities to visit their ancestral homeland and pay pilgrimages to sacred sites.
Countering Violent Extremism
In 2016 Maghakyan’s American Government class, under his direct supervision, competed in a nationwide Homeland Security program on countering violent extremism, earning “honorable mention” as a finalist. The pilot program, entitled “Make Your Voice Extreme,” imagined platforms and social media opportunities for Muslim American pride and free expression to preempt violent radicalization.