Yerevan /Mediamax. Impact investor, co-founder of IDeA Foundation Ruben Vardanyan believes that the main challenge for the Armenian society today is "to realize the depth of the crisis we are facing.”

“Awareness of the depth and scale of the crisis will allow us to understand without panicking that it can be overcome only through joint efforts. Neither the authorities nor the opposition has a chance to solve these problems alone. We need an honest conversation about where we are today, not a division into “current” and “former”, “black” or “white”. We have the illusion that something can be corrected somewhere and all our problems will be solved. It is not so,” Ruben Vardanyan said in an interview with the Repat Riarch project.

Vardanyan has noted that the Armenian authorities and the Diaspora are unable to solve the existing problems independently, “it is necessary to involve international institutions and specialists, Russia.”

“One of the key challenges is the loss of trust in institutions. Another serious problem is the management crisis and lack of people who can make decisions. There is a management crisis in Armenia at all levels, and we do not realize its scale,” he said.

According to Ruben Vardanyan, in current situation, it is extremely important to establish cooperation and abandon the usual egocentric models. That is why Aurora Initiative cooperates with many organizations in Artsakh now, he added. The impact investor has stressed that it is necessary to “do small projects every day” in order to enable people to regain hope.

“It is very important for us to avoid the recurrence of the “collective victimhood”. We got rid of this complex thanks to the victory in the first Artsakh war. Today it is back, and this is a very serious mental crisis conducive for emigration. Overcoming this relapse is a challenge for the elites,” Vardanyan stated.