Director Erik Sargsyan

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin announced that it had decided to apply to Catholicos of all Armenians on initiating examination of Koryun Arakelyan's anti-canonical and anti-church actions with the Disciplinary Committee of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. The church council has clarified that obstructing the liturgy and disrupting the prayer atmosphere in the church hurts the spiritual feelings of many believers. The debate on the pavilion of "Option" refers to the moral and ethical issues that have emerged as a result of recent protests.

 

The public perception is virtually undoubtable that the author of the current changes in Armenia is the nation. Consequently, each one seeks to contribute to the processes following the change of power. Will the citizen's contribution hereinafter be of demand , which was so appreciated in the heat of the revolution. What is the power-to-public relation and what is the potential of their current communication in terms of social change? 

Discussion by sociologist Zhanna Andreasyan and writer Hovhannes Yeranyan.

 

According to the Primate of Shirak Diocese Bishop Mikayel Ajapahyan, the movement “New Armenia, New Patriarch” has started with features specific to dissenters and is turning into a sect. However, the final definition can be attached only by the higher ecclesiastical authority. 

 

In recent days, social networks and online media have been publishing calls for protests addressed to the Armenian Church, the clergy of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and Catholicos of All Armenians. The authors of several protest letters published on the internet are priest who have been defrocked in previous years, who have also offered to run a protest march to solve their problems. The Mother See, as well as the members of the General Congregation, have addressed letters and videos in which they offer to solve problems in compliance with the rules adopted in the church. Why did need for this tactic of protest arise, and how do these developments relate to the context of the velvet revolution? 

Head of the Information Department of the Mother See Father Vahram Melikyan and journalist Ara Galoyan are discussing the topic. 

 

"The reforms of the education sector conducted over the past two decades have not reached classrooms and auditoriums. The world existing there and in the Ministry cabinets are very much different from each other. The introduced reforms have not been adapted to our educational environment, have been introduced in sprint,"- says education expert Serob Khachatryan. How to regulate educational life post reform? The Ministry of Education and Science promises to review the sectoral reforms. 

Discussion by Serob Khachatryan, education expert and Syuzi Makyan, Head of Pre-school and Secondary Education Policy Development and Analysis Department of MSE.

The key demands of the movement were justice, equlity, freedom and sovereignty. What leverages do we have on state and public level? What does it mean public interest, how to harmonize personal and public interest?

The topic is discussed by political political theorist Naira Khachatryan and culturologist Hamlet Melkumyan. 

 

According to the RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, the members of the "New Armenia, New Patriarch" initiative have committed violence against Catholicos of All Armenians in Vayots Dzor province. The Defender considers this fact dangerous in terms of tolerance and solidarity in the society. The Ombudsman of Artsakh Ruben Melikyan thinks that the encroachment towards Catholicos is also related to the freedom of conscience and religion of the absolute majority of Artsakh citizens. According to expert’ estimates, over the past month the right of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the rights established by the Armenian legislation for the religious organization has been continuously infringed. The provisions of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights and the constitutional rights of the pontiff of the Armenian Apostolic Church have also been violated. The topic is discussed by the Director of "Against Violation of Law" NGO, RA First Ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan and YSU Professor, Doctor of Law Arthur Vagharshyan

 Around 80 percent of the children in Armenian orphanages and other care institutions appear in those institutions as a result of tough social conditions. Professional term is “social orphanness”. The poverty doesn’t seem to reduce, yet the large centralized care centers for children seem to be unloaded. Where do these children go; what conditions and social infrastructures have been created to implement this process of unloading? 

Yelena Harutyunyan, foster care specialist of Child Support Center, FAR, and Knarik Garanfilian –Founding Chairwoman of “Family and Community” Charity NGO discuss the topic.

 

During the days of the movement “Take a Step”, the state symbols served as important components of civic activism. The faces, clothes and cars were colored with the colors of national flag. Are the state symbols only just a distinctive mark, or they do undergo a thorough revaluation? Ethnographer Arsen Hakobyan and sociologist Artur Atanesyan talk about these issues.

The movement “Take a Step” opened such a field of citizen self- and education in diverse platforms of mass gatherings, which would be the subject of the envy by any educational institution. The society is getting matured politically, culturally, ethically and morally hour by hour. Where did these changes get originated?