Civic Activism as a Novel Component of Armenian Civil Society

Addressing the Research Questions
Although the project has amassed a wealth of data that go well beyond the research questions
posed, it is necessary here to tighten the narrative by returning to the starting point. Over the
course of two years, what have we learned about the mutual perceptions of civic activists and
NGOs, their patterns of interaction and the impact of the overall political culture? This section
will address each of the Research Questions in turn.
RQ.1: How do NGOs and activists perceive each other?
NGO’s perceptions of activists are overwhelmingly positive: activists are the progressive youth,
the source of hope, the new generation that has the stamina to stand up for its rights and is able
and willing to break stereotypes. Activists are even somewhat romanticised as the “progressive”,
“intellectual,” “the educated” sector of society. Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
Our task, as researchers, is not to define what “progressive” might mean but to highlight that our
interviews depict a much more complex picture. For example, not all activists we interviewed
saw other activists as “progressive.” We heard descriptions such as “patriarchal”, “closed”,
“disorganised,” “nationalist,” or “selfish.” We even heard conspiracy theories that one or another
particular campaign was secretly supported or even organised by the government. Activists
themselves do not always and necessarily regard one another as unconditional comrades-in-arms
on the same side of the barricade, but NGOs tended to see them all in a positive light.
By contrast, activists’ perceptions of NGOs were rather varied, nuanced, and generally
guarded. Most activists stressed the existing diversity within the NGO sector and the need to
differentiate between “good” and “bad” NGOs, and between the ones that “serve the public
interest” and the NGOs that are ‘grant-eaters’ and in the ‘government’s pocket’. However, the
attitude towards the first type, the “good” NGOs, was cordial but not overly enthusiastic. They
are doing their job and are being paid for it. It is good to have their help. According to the
activists, NGOs are certainly not knights in shining armour. The approach is rather pragmatic.
RQ.2: How do NGOs and activists interact?
Unsurprisingly, our study found a range of forms and levels of interaction between activists and
NGOs. A somewhat surprising finding, however, was that NGOs are considerably more present
in civic initiatives than we had expected at the outset. Nevertheless, they were much less visible
to the activists themselves than they were to us. When we started our project, we were under the
impression that three out of five cases had no NGO involvement. NGOs were visible, at the
‘front of the stage’ in the Teghut case but they were situated ‘back stage’ in the Maternity Leave
campaign (an intentional decision by NGOs, found in a previous study). We found that Afrikyan
was a bizarre case of explicit and intensive NGO involvement that went unnoticed by the
activists. Electric Yerevan used NGO data-gathering reports to strengthen its cause, and even the
most tightly knit, anti-NGO campaign, Dem Em, was at one point promoted by an NGO. This
promotion could have been on the NGO’s own initiative and had minimal impact. However, this
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