{"id":1049,"date":"2024-09-19T22:57:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T22:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/?page_id=1049"},"modified":"2024-10-20T13:55:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T13:55:32","slug":"report-of-the-first-discussion-organized-by-the-armenian-center-for-civic-initiatives-sparapet","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/?page_id=1049","title":{"rendered":"Report of the\u00a0First Discussion\u00a0organized by the Armenian Center for Civic Initiatives \u201cSparapet\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>On July 18, 2024, the first discussion organized by the Armenian Center for Civic Initiatives \u201cSparapet\u201d took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The discussion was attended by political scientists, political technologists, sociologists, and experts with extensive experience in public administration and diplomacy. The discussion was closed to the press, with 15 experts participating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The main goal of the discussion was to present the objectives of the \u201cSparapet\u201d Center, its areas of activity, and to hear opinions and messages from the participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Voiced Opinions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There is a significant need for research centers or think tanks in Armenia. Moreover, one of the main reasons for the defeat in 2020 was the lack of professionalism in decisions made in the political, state-building, diplomatic, and social spheres, the neglect of expert and scientific potential, the scarcity of expert centers, and the disregard of the potential of Armenia and the Diaspora. Unfortunately, no conclusions have been drawn on this issue since 2020.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>State decisions are made without expert analysis, without developing scenarios for prospective development, without understanding the logic of geopolitical processes and the challenges and opportunities arising from them, and also without studying public opinion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The collapse of the governance system indicates that decisions made on the spur of the moment, without expert investigation, are characteristic not only of the current authorities but also, in general, of all political and governance actors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Acknowledging the importance of establishing such centers and welcoming the establishment of \u201cSparapet,\u201d the participants raised important issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Such centers require substantial resources, which can come from grants provided by the state or interested private donors. Alternatively, funds can be generated from research orders given to these centers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The participants noted that the absence of conducive culture is the biggest obstacle to the effective and self-sustaining establishment of such research centers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It was suggested that one of the reasons for this situation is the absence of an accountability institution in Armenia. The lack of assessment of the mistakes or, at times, fateful decisions of state officials, which would subject them to accountability, allows them to make arbitrary decisions without needing to justify them, even by incorporating recommendations from such centers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The participants expressed their willingness to engage in the initiatives organized by \u201cSparapet,\u201d but noted that the aforementioned issues need to be addressed to achieve sustainability and continuously create intellectual products.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 18, 2024, the first discussion organized by the Armenian Center for Civic Initiatives \u201cSparapet\u201d took place. The discussion<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/?page_id=1049\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Report of the\u00a0First Discussion\u00a0organized by the Armenian Center for Civic Initiatives \u201cSparapet\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1049","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1049"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1089,"href":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1049\/revisions\/1089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparapet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}