The Arabic Studies has been one of the disciplines of Yerevan State University since its foundation in the beginning of the 20th century. As a separate department it was formed according to the decision of Scientific Board in 1992, as a result of reconstruction of the departments of Arabic and Turkish philology and the History of Western countries.
Arabic language has been taught at YSU since its foundation: in 40-ies the Department of Oriental Languages was established as a part of the Department of Philology, and from 1968, when the Faculty of Oriental Studies was founded, the Department was divided into two departments: Iranian philology and Arabic and Turkish philology.
Nowadays the curriculum encompasses all the main directions of Arabic studies; literary Arabic language, History of the Arab linguistics, History of Islam, Arabic literature (medieval and modern periods), History of Arab countries and Modern Hebrew.
Since 2009 the acting Head of Arabic Department has been PhD H. Kocharyan.

The history of Iranian Studies in Armenia starts from the early years of the foundation of YSU in 1919. In 1923, some years after that event Hrachya Acharyan a famous linguist was invited to YSU from Tabriz and started teaching Persian, Sanskrit and the history of Persian language. Professor Acharyan as a student of famous scholars of Oriental and Armenian Studies brought the international traditions of classical Iranian Studies to YSU, which were kept and developed reaching nowadays.
In 1940 the Faculty of Philology was founded in YSU, one of the branches of the Department of the Oriental languages and literature was Iranian lore. In 1968 the Faculty of Oriental Studies was founded as an independent subdivision in which the Department of Iranian Studies was established. From 1973 to 1997 the head of the Department of Iranian studies was Dr., Prof. Gevorg Nalbandyan, from 1997 to 2014 Dr., Prof. Garnik Asatryan. From 2014 to present the head of the department is Dr. Vardan Voskanian.
The fields of the scientific and educational interests of the Department of Iranian Studies include almost all the areas of Iranian Studies covering modern and ancient Iranian languages and dialects (Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, Talysh, Tati, Parthian, Middle Persian, Old Persian, etc.), the history of Iran and Iranian-speaking people, Iranian linguistics and philology, the literature of Iran, the history of Iranian culture and civilization, research on the Middle Eastern ethno-confessional groups, modern political issues concerning Iran and Middle East, etc.
The graduates of the Department successfully work in such fields as science, education, international relations, diplomacy, also in the state administrative organs, public and private organizations, etc.

The Center for Islamic Studies is functioning in the structure of the Department of Iranian Studies. Twelve-Imam Shi’ism and other branches of Islam are this Center’s main subjects of study.The Center for Islamic Studies was established in 2013 in the framework of the cooperation between The Yerevan State University and The Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies of Tehran. In addition to the scientific research many lecturers and scientists, as well as religious leaders of Iran are delivering lectures in this Center. The Center for Islamic Studies has its professional library, which is regularly being supplemented with new publications.

In 2010 due to an agreement between Yerevan State University and L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University signed in 2010 in the Chair of Turkish Studies of the Faculty of Oriental Studies there was opened Centre of Kazakh culture, language, literature and history. We should notice that The Embassy of Kazakhstan in the Republic of Armenia has always made its own effort both in opening and the further development of the Centre. In the framework of YSU and ENU there were organized a lot of programms, especially scientific conferences, publishing scientific articles both in Yerevan and in Astana, receiving delegation of modern Kazakh writers in Armenia and exchange programms among students and professors. In the framework of this Centre a professor from ENU- PhD Ainur Naimanbai gave lectures on the modern Kazakh language to Armenian students. Since 2013 some master's degree students from the Chair of Turkic Studies of ENU had master classes at YSU. In 2014 PhD Student Shushan Khachatryan made three-month master class at ENU, published articles in Kazakh and Russian languages: The head of the Chair of Turkish Studies, professor A. Safaryan and other lecturers took part in some scientific conferences and read lectures at ENU in Astana. Nowadays due to cooperation between two universities our students have chance to study both Kazakh literature and Kazakh language.