Civic Activism as a Novel Component of Armenian Civil Society

8.2. Civic Initiatives in Armenia
There is agreement among many participants that the words “initiative”, “campaign” or
“movement” do not exactly represent what is happening in Armenia. The words that would best
describe the on-going cases are “struggle” or “battle” 36 .
One of the most visible traits assigned to initiatives is spontaneity. Civic initiatives are of
a non-political nature and are instead case-driven or issue-specific, which is why initiatives do
not tend to last long and do not develop into larger movements. There is also a commonly held
view that some of the successful initiatives of the past have inspired numerous other initiatives.
In other words, initiatives usually develop based on similar past cases, in the sense that nearly
identical groups of people organise and join future initiatives. Most of the activists know each
other and join initiatives for different purposes. This indicates the strength of the internal
connections among activists, an argument which is true for the major cities of Armenia,
including Yerevan, Gyumri and Kapan.
It should be noted that many participants have serious reservations about the terms “civic
activist” or “activism”. There seems to be general agreement that these terms possess negative
connotations, a phenomenon interestingly linked to the Armenian government, which has
succeeded in spreading a negative image, thereby creating ill reputation about the initiatives and
discouraging participation in them. According to the findings of a previous study on civil society
in Armenia, a similar tendency can be observed in the perception of NGOs as entities spreading
external agendas, as opposed to being a contribution to the local society (Paturyan and
Gevorgyan 2014). At present, the focus of attention has shifted on activists, with a similar logic
and reasoning. Activists in Armenia participate and engage using their own time and resources.
There is an interesting tendency at present regarding pressures and control exerted on
behalf of the government. Some interviewees highlight similar stories of being pressured to leave
campaigns. Those activists who happen to have relatives or friends working in the public sector
often receive a call requesting (followed by a demand) that they withdraw from participation in
an initiative, in an effort to persuade them to leave the campaign. The threatening arguments
used to support such demands usually revolve around issues of safety and security, elaborating
that they can still be saved from pressures and further conflicts with the authorities, if they quit
the initiative immediately.
8.2.1. How Do Civic Initiatives Succeed?
The success of a civic initiative is a uniting factor in itself. For example, Armenia has witnessed
some important success stories, which are regarded as starting points that can be echoed in future
initiatives. 37 The successful past cases contributed to the success of other initiatives. For
example, people joined the Dem Em or the Electric Yerevan initiatives because they knew that
they would be a success. However, others consider such achievements to be minor. The
36 In Armenian «պայքար»
37 Frequent reference points in this context are two successful initiatives: Save Mashtots park (the preservation of a
national park) and We Are Paying 100 Dram (an issue concerning public transportation price hike).
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