The Armenian Communities Department is rolling out a week-long social media campaign and inviting people to reflect on the following overarching question: How do we create new ways of being Armenian in the 21^st Century? This question is informed by the report Armenians in 2115: Strategic Directions for the Twenty-First Century, which was the outcome of a seminar organised in Lisbon for the global Armenian leadership. Prominent leaders, intellectuals and experts attended the seminar to discuss the challenges Armenian people currently face, and are likely to face in the foreseeable future.

During the week leading up to the launch, we will reveal parts of the report accompanied by daily questions which we hope will foster lively debates. The campaign will culminate with the official launch of the report – in English and Armenian – on January 26 in three cities simultaneously: London, Yerevan and Los Angeles.

We are aiming to connect the three discussion points in real time through webcasting, so that a global audience can follow the conversation and submit questions. The intention of the launch, and of the report, is to instigate debates within the Armenian world regarding some of the fundamental problems facing the Armenian people in the 21^st Century, encouraging future-oriented strategic thinking and research. The following excerpt offers an indication of the debates.

Gone are the days where Armenians gravitate toward Armenian organisations just because they are Armenian. Parents, for instance, insist on high quality schools, youth want their local clubs to be connected to global networks and issues, using the latest technologies and know-how. There is a slew of challenges facing diasporan institutions to “scale up” quality to remain attractive to their members and users. (…) [In Armenia] neither the impact of the engagements from the previous 20 years is known sufficiently, nor the priority needs for the forthcoming 20 years.

The overall chair and coordinator of the discussion will be Martin Essayan, Trustee of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, participating from London.

London, UK, at 17h00-19h00 London School of Economics
Panelists: Armine Ishkanian and Hratch Tchilingirian; chaired by Razmik Panossian.

Yerevan, Armenia, at 21h00-23h00 American University of Armenia
Panelists: Samuel Samuelyan, Mark Grigoryan and Arman Jilavyan; chaired by Armen Der Kiureghian.

Los Angeles, USA, at 9h00-11h00 University of Southern California
Panelists: Salpi Ghazarian and Raffy Ardhaljian moderate a group of young participants.

The report is being launched in partnership with the London School of Economics and Political Science (Department of Social Policy), University of Southern California (Institute of Armenian Studies), and the American University of Armenia (the President’s Office). The Civilitas Foundation is providing technical and media support; our social media campaign is being supported by IDeA Foundation and 100 LIVES.

Visit our website for daily updates and send your comments to [email protected].

We invite you to join the discussions online by following our social media partners.

Please use the official hashtag #Armenians2115