Civic Activism as a Novel Component of Armenian Civil Society

efforts to save the waterfall mean that the Teghut mine issue was unattended for some time
(Kankanyan 2015).
Stage 4: Not Giving Up (2012-Present). After the Trchkan waterfall issue had been
sucessfully resolved, there was ‘euphoria’ among the activists, as they managed to achieve the
fulfilment of their demands. This gave them hope, and they embarked on influencing the policy
in Teghut with double effort (Kankanyan 2015). The first major activity organised by the group
at this stage was a march towards Teghut in January 2012. By approximate estimates, there were
200-300 people participating in the march. The activists were confronted by a large group of
local residents working for the company, who opposed the activists and claimed they needed the
jobs.
The strategy of referring to the law and involving the international community and
regulatory bodies continued. There was an appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights on 13 July 2012, stating that the rights of Shnogh and Teghut villagers were being
violated and that they were being exposed to enormous health risk. Moreover, a report was
submitted to the EU Commission describing the situation and its possible consequences.
In 2013, alternative economic development emerged as a new vector of strategy. The
major argument for the opening of the mine was the economic benefit it would bring to local
communities and the country in general. To counter that claim, the Teghut activists proposed an
alternative, eco-friendly development strategy. As an alternative to mining, they argued in favour
of honey and natural cosmetics businesses as examples of natural and environmentally
sustainable products. To promote their ideas, the activists organised several honey fairs in
Shnogh (September 2013) and Teghut (September 2014). The fairs also included other products,
such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and homemade sweets. Some families hosted guests who had
travelled from other cities to the fair. This was another source of income for the community
members. More broadly, activists advocated developing eco-tourism in the region, which would
create an alternative source of income: sustainable both in terms of preserving nature and
contributing to the economic development of the communities.
Mining operations started in Teghut in 2014. Approximately 2,000 hectares were
provided for mining, including forestland and community land. There was no change in the
initial plan for the exploitation of the mine, but the activists did not give up and continued their
struggle.
• Current status of the initiative
The initiative is characterised as on-going, as activities continue and, particularly, the initiative
has reached a new institutional level: it rents and maintains a small office space in the centre of
Yerevan. Its www.teghut.am website is well developed and saturated with information. The last
website update was on 28 July 2015 (posting an open letter), but it also displays a link to the
most recent Facebook group update on 17 April 2016.
In general, activists continue disseminating information about the mine, contacting the
relevant government bodies and providing them with evidence of the damage currently done to
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