Young Activists Electrify Armenia: Lessons Learned…

Harut Sassounian
BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
When a group of young Armenians spontaneously gathered in Yerevan’s Liberty Square 10 days ago to challenge the planned increase of electricity rates, no one expected their protest to reverberate around the world.
To everyone’s surprise, the small gathering mushroomed into several thousand mostly young people who marched to the Capital City’s major thoroughfare, the Baghramyan Avenue, where the Presidential Palace, the Parliament, and the Constitutional Court are located, and staged an overnight sit-in. The protests quickly spread to major towns and cities throughout Armenia.
Since the demonstrators refused to vacate the Avenue, the police dispersed them with water cannons, injuring a dozen protesters and arresting 237 others. The police also detained several journalists, damaging or confiscating their cameras and tape recorders.
As images of these confrontations were disseminated through social media and various websites, several thousand more protesters showed up the next day, making crowd control practically impossible. At the time of writing this column — the evening of June 29 — demonstrators were still occupying portions of Baghramyan Avenue.
Who are these young men and women and what do they want? They are not affiliated with any political parties or foreign powers, contrary to baseless accusations, and have no agenda other than demanding that the Armenian government rescind the 17% increase in the cost of electricity, effective August 1. These activists believe that they are legally and morally justified to block city streets because their protest is peaceful and spontaneous! They have named their movement “No to Plunder.”