Civic Activism as a Novel Component of Armenian Civil Society

and the resulting burning need to follow up for a change was a significant factor and the most
commonly cited reason for some leading activists to become initially involved. The majority of
activists refer to their previous educational, professional or volunteering experience, which
helped them to engage. For the majority of participants, the road to activism was paved by their
educational involvement. Many of the present-day activists started their journey while
completing their degrees in social, political, or legal studies or journalism. Engagement for some
activists began as a result of their prior NGO involvement: being a staff member at an NGO was
an opportunity to learn and develop some activist qualities. Here, it is important to mention that
one of the discussions with activists was ultimately a discussion with NGO members, as the
majority of participants (apart from their activist engagement) worked at NGOs.
When speaking of particular initiatives, such as Dem Em, the activists became engaged
due to their occupation in the IT sector. In one account a journalist doing her job ended up
becoming a part of the campaign.
“It started when I went to provide the coverage of one initiative as a journalist. But I am
a very bad journalist. From the second gathering of the initiative I was no longer a
journalist. I was an activist, and a part of the initiative.” Activist, Female, 28
Our interviews made it clear that social media is an important recruitment platform. Some
activists became involved as a result of learning about a gathering/discussion via social media to
discuss a concern. For several people, this scenario was how they originally engaged, which
reconfirms the importance of public discourse around an issue (which will be elaborated on
below). The lifeless political party environment and the lack of institutions capable of solving
accumulating problems are further important driving forces behind people’s decisions to engage
in activist behaviour.
Some activists became involved as a result of their individual stories of being cheated or
deprived of something. A previously observed injustice at workplaces, discriminatory and unfair
behaviour by bosses, an inability to make one’s point heard and the similar scenarios were
mentioned as reasons. An injustice encountered during a personal/professional experience led
people to become more demanding of the human rights protections and the public good. Their
internal motivation has thus been primarily concerned with a sense of injustice, supported by a
continuous sense of grief and misery. A valuable amount of data based on participants’
confessions demonstrates the existence of feelings fuelled by a motivation to engage. Had there
been no such difficult experience, perhaps they would not have protested in the streets. When
opportunities were presented to them (in terms of activist campaigns organised to address
another injustice), these people chose to express their frustration by joining campaigns. One
activist explains,
“The sense of loneliness is gone, because of my involvement. I was noticing problems,
which are very hard to solve, close to impossible, which have been contributing to the
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