I left home during a pretty rocky period. Our own politics had just taken a drastic turn and the dust was still settling. There were plenty of demonstrations, rallies, and protests just starting up in America. A year later, and much of that has died down without much change to show for it. Many Armenians have pointed out to me, what America couldn't do in a year, Armenia has just done in a month.
Granted, that's an oversimplification. There are pretty large differences between the geopolitical climates of America and Armenia. The largest factor is probably the size, with the population of Armenia landing close to the 3 million mark. Total. That's about the population of the city of Chicago for some reference. Armenia also has a much newer government, a much more homogeneous population, and a much less developed infrastructure. I'm sure all of these factors plus plenty others played a role in the success of Armenia's "Velvet Revolution". But as an American, coming from the backdrop of the often ineffectiveness of even our more massive demonstrations, I have been wowed by what I have witnessed.
I don't want to give the whole back story of what has happened in Armenia, mostly because I'm not sure I could be very succinct, but also because I'm not sure I would be the most unbiased. NPR posted a pretty brief and informative article about it here: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/08/609364542/leader-of-armenias-velvet-revolution-takes-power-after-weeks-of-protests
Super cliff notes version: A man who was President for 10 years was then elected Prime Minister. The people protested. The man stepped down. The next man who filled in as Prime Minister was of the same political party with very similar ideas. The people protested again. That man stepped down too. The people started backing a man from the opposition political party. The ruling political party in the Parliament rejected him. The people protested in an even bigger way. A week later, the ruling political party gave in and the people's choice for Prime Minister was confirmed.
Hopefully without putting my opinion into the matter, I wanted to share some of the things I witnessed. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we must avoid big crowds, especially those with political motivations. So while I didn't see everything, this movement permeated almost all aspects of every day life for me in those three weeks. It was pretty hard to avoid. (Disclaimer here - PC Armenia was constantly attentive to our safety throughout the movement and had appropriate measures in place just in case. I never once felt in danger.)
On my way to school, all the intersections were blocked. I had to turn around. It turned out, none of the mini-buses were able to move, so none of the teachers made it to school. Which didn't matter so much because almost all of the students were at the protest.
The first thing I noticed was the palpable range of people participating in the Velvet Revolution. In my school and my adult clubs, there were Armenians of a wide variety of ages and backgrounds excited and actively involved in the movement. My 6th grade students organized themselves to make posters and march down to the square together, about a 3 mile walk. A very traditional doctor in her 60's in my adult English club painstakingly wrote out her support for the movement and her reasons in English so she could use them in class. A student's mother came to talk to my counterpart because her daughter was worried about missing class, but didn't want to miss the revolution. My counterpart assured her that she was where she needed to be, to stay safe, and stay with her classmates (also all at the revolution). The teachers in my school, who often have an intimidating level of professionalism, realized none of their students were coming, so they marched outside, joined hands, and blocked the highway together. The next day they went all out, created a school banner, and just went with the students from the get-go.
The teachers are in the back with some of our students in the front. The sign says "Vanadzor Basic School #19".
The second thing I noticed was that there was an almost imperceptible shift that likely never would have happened without the youth. Since I arrived in Armenia, I have heard countless complaints about the state of things in Armenia, but how no one can do anything to change it. Defeatism and/or apathy was the rule, not the exception. Then Serzh was elected. The youth came out first. Young adults and students were in the city square. There were others, but it was overwhelmingly children and young adults who came first. Everyone else seemed to have a mixed response. They supported the youth, but weren't sure it would do anything. I even heard someone say the words, "It is nice what they are trying to do, but nothing will change. Serzh won't give up."
Students marching the 3miles into the city center while chanting. No adults needed.
Then, Serzh stepped down, and that seemed to be the signal many others needed. There was a brief break for the Genocide Remembrance Day, and then every person I knew was in the city square or marching towards it. Nikol Pashinyan was a major voice from the beginning, but he became THE voice. An Armenian acquaintance of mine commented, "When this all started, Nikol was never the man I would vote for. Now he is the only man." Another comment was, "My grandfather says he was there during the protests after the 1988 earthquake. This is much like that, but amazingly even bigger and more peaceful."
The sounds of protest. This was an almost constant soundtrack for about 2 weeks. They did take nights off, so sleeping wasn't a problem.
Which brings me to my next observation: peace. I have never seen such a large gathering of people, especially with political motivations, continue for so long without violence. I wasn't even convinced that was possible. Sure, emotions were high, some tempers flared, but property wasn't destroyed. Citizens who disagreed, talked, or even yelled, but punches weren't thrown. (Granted, neither party was attempting to dehumanize or strip rights away from the other.) People weren't being beaten back by the police or injured with various harmful repelling devices. There were some early reports of such occurrences in Yerevan, but those only happened for the first few days before I'm assuming authorities realized it wouldn't make the protests stop. There was no such action in my city. In fact, a police officer who attends one of my clubs expressed the wish to join the protest, but the boss had instructed the police force to not be involved on either side. They were only to watch to see that things remained peaceful. The peace was so prevalent, some people began calling it the White Revolution, for the lack of damage and blood. After it all ended, my counterpart told our class, "If you would like, wear white tomorrow. We will all wear our white to celebrate the successful, peaceful, White Revolution."
The revolution itself seemed to be a celebration. Protesters took to the word դուխով (pronounced, dookhov). I asked my Armenian friends if they could translate. They said there is no English word for it. Here are some of the "it kind of means this" explanations I received: to move forward without fear of bad consequences, to persevere with joy, to go with dancing, to keep moving with good thoughts. My apartment is over a kilometer from the square where people were protesting, but I could hear them moving forward clear as day from within my room.
As a foreigner in Armenia while this was happening, everything felt electric. I hid inside a lot, not because I was scared (although large crowds can definitely be a bit nerve wrecking), but because it was almost impossible to be outside and not be in the protest. The protest was everywhere. It permeated the entire city. So my functions became limited to going strictly where I needed to go and coming back home. I even had to turn back around a few times from the road blocks or marches. No one paid me any mind, though. This was about Armenians and Armenia. I was only a peripheral observer.
Electricity. Every day.
I would love to have more personal conversations on everything that happened here. It really was an incredible thing to witness, regardless of whatever politics were on either side. One cool fact, my first Armenian teacher in country was selected as the Minister of Culture in the new government. She is one of two female ministers and I am super proud of her. She is a truly brilliant, compassionate, capable woman. She is the one in red.
Things have settled down now. Life is pretty much back to the every day. Still, I sometimes hear my students, co-teachers, and friends discussing what happened with a sense of happy nostalgia. There seems to be a little more hope in the air. Who knows if the politics will be what Armenia wanted or how it will all develop in the coming years, but the event in itself, was definitely something momentous.
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