Civic Activism as a Novel Component of Armenian Civil Society

Voch Talanin (No to Plunder) Facebook page (registered as a public figure) has 8,291 likes (as
of May 2016). There are also two public groups, Voch Talanin (13,754 members) and Voch
Talanin – Aragatsotn (a region of Armenia, 39 members). There are also two community pages
with the identical name of ElectricYerevan, but with different numbers of likes (3,577 and 2,027)
different pictures and somewhat different information posted. It appears that the page with fewer
likes is meant to cater to English-speaking users’ needs; it has been inactive since September
2015. The page with 3,577 likes is regularly updated with political news, mostly of oppositional
character.
An interesting episode worth mentioning is a Facebook initiative to turn off the lights for
an hour was created at the outset of the protests. It received 9,000 “attending” on the first day.
Yet, it made no visible impact, with no talking or discussion. It appears that the initiative did not
get off the ground.
• Scope, spread, duration
The active period lasted for two weeks and involved tens of thousands of demonstrators. This
was the largest activism campaign in Armenia, not counting the Karabakh Movement of 1988-
91. The action spread beyond Yerevan. Protests also took place in Gyumri, Stepanavan, and
Spitak.
• NGOs
NGOs were not visible during the protests, not at any other stage of the activism. They did play a
role as information providers: a report by an NGO was used as a basis for the argument that
Armenians already paid too much for electricity, compared to other post-Soviet countries.
Transparency International publicised a few facts exposing ENA’s mismanagement and
questionable procurement deals.
• Other
There was a continuous and repeatedly enforced strategy to use Armenian symbols only. This
became particularly important because the Russian media continued drawing parallels with the
Ukrainian Maidan and alleging external interferences and a “Western” hand behind the protests.
To counter those allegations, placards such as “This is not Maidan, this is Marshal Baghramyan”
and “Baghramyan will never become Maidan” appeared. If non-Armenian flags were raised,
people who held them were asked to remove them, including a senior Armenian politician and
twice Presidential candidate, Paruyr Hairikyan, who appeared on 2 July with an EU flag and was
told to leave.
5.2. Discussion of the Cases
Our study reviews five cases of civic activism in Armenia. The five are very different in nearly
every respect: the scope ranges from tiny to huge, there are failures, triumphs and partial
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