Armenian Protests and Politics

Abstract

In reaction to the decision of the government of Armenia to raise the electricity tariff by 16.9 percent, several hundred young people gathered in Freedom Square and protested against this measure on June 18, 2015. In the early morning of June 23, the police used water cannons to brutally disperse the demonstrators and arrested 237 of them. These events unexpectedly brought thousands of citizens to Baghramyan Avenue, which remained closed for approximately two weeks. As various emerging movements in Armenia, the Electric Yerevan was instantly characterized as “new”, “unprecedented” and sometimes even “revolutionary” by researchers, publicists, the media, and activists who were referring to its scale of involving various layers of Armenian society and the repertoire of the protests. “The Electric Yerevan between reproduction and change” is the retrospective analysis of the movement that attempts to reveal and rethink its potential of creating social change in Armenian society. To reconsider and reveal the Electric Yerevan’s potential to affect social change, the analysis reflects on two aspects—the question that was targeted by the movement and the methods of challenging it and the links between plurality and diversity in the movement.