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ARMENIA'S OPPOSITION ESPOUSES GRASSROOTS ISSUES
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #744
July 14 2014
Campaign groups now find that politicians are interested in their
causes.
By Gayane Lazarian - Caucasus
Popular protests about grassroots issues seem to capture the political
elite's attention more than formal opposition does, even if the latest
one - a campaign to save a historic building in the capital Yerevan
- has ended in failure. Opposition parties have recognised this and
are making various campaign issues their own.
After weeks of protests, efforts to save the 130-year-old Afrikyan
House came to an end on July 8 when demolition workers moved in. The
government sold the centrally-located plot to a company called
Millennium Construction despite having designated the building -
the home of 19th century merchant Armen Afrikyan - a "site of public
interest" in 2008. The company plans to build a hotel on the land
and recreate the exterior of the Afrikyan House elsewhere in the city.
Photographer Hayk Bianjyan has been capturing images of Yerevan's old
buildings since 2003, and joined the campaign to save the Afrikyan
House.
"Thirty-two buildings like this have been removed in Yerevan in the
last 20 years," he told IWPR. "The old town no longer exists."
The preservationist movement formed an alliance with another campaign
group fighting a ten per cent rise in electricity prices, although
that too failed in its objectives, as the higher prices will come
into effect in August. (See Armenians Shocked at Electricity Price
Rise on that issue.)
Despite these setbacks, issue-based rather than overtly political
campaign movements are gaining traction in Armenia.
Some issues raised in this way are making it onto the mainstream
political agenda in a way that has not been seen before.
"The political parties are taking these ideas from civil society and
putting them on the agenda," Yerevand Bozoyan, a political analyst
and head of the Mitk research centre, told IWPR. "As a result, it's
becoming a real headache for the government, and we're seeing the
results in parliament. People have managed to find effective ways to
get their voices heard, thanks to civic groups and political forces."
On June 10, the four opposition parties with seats in parliament -
Prosperous Armenia, the Armenian National Congress (ANC), Heritage
and Dashnaktsutyun - presented the government with a list of demands,
most of which were originally issues raised by campaigning groups.
The disparate demands include a review of fines for parking and driving
offences, a freeze on public transport fares, and a commitment to get
the Nairit chemicals factory back on its feet by paying off corporate
debts and back wages.
Manvel Sargsyan, director of the Armenian Centre for National and
International Studies, said the opposition appeared indifferent to
grassroots movements until recently, but this had changed.
"Even the ANC leadership has said that political parties are unable to
solve the problems facing Armenia without help from civic movements,"
he said. "We also saw how they worked with the Dem.am movement."
Dem.am has spent the last eight months or so fighting against a
proposed pension reform introducing mandatory staff contributions.
After initially refusing to budge, the government has cracked and
sent new amendments to parliament that postpone the reforms' start
date until 2017.
Bozoyan said public activism was still in its infancy in Armenia,
but was moving in the right direction.
"I think time is working against the government and in the public's
favour. People see they can have an impact," he said. "The prime
minister was replaced by someone else who has proposed various new
versions of the [pensions] law, which is a positive thing in itself.
Think about how it used to be, when dialogue of this kind was
inconceivable."
Artur Avtandilyan, a spokesman for Transparency International, said he
doubted that Dem.am could take the credit for Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan being removed and replaced with Hovik Abrahamyan. (See Did
Economic Woes or Moscow's Hand Force Out Armenian Premier? on some
of the other possible causes.)
Avtandilyan also cast doubt on the ability of civil society groups
to force change.
"Their activists have become too predictable for the government,
which knows how to use psychology and technology to unsettle its
opponents, whereas civil society [group] just uses street clashes
with the police and a few statements," he told IWPR. "It's time to
move from quantity to quality."
And despite opposition parties taking up popular causes, Artur Sakunts,
head of the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Civic Assembly, said there
was still no organised political force capable of forcing parliament
to look into the issues that concerned Armenian citizens.
"If the country had such an opposition group, then our country would
be completely different. Of course that would take a lot of work," he
said. "I wouldn't say the government is not concerned, but it does not
believe there's a group that's able to harness public dissatisfaction."
Gayane Lazarian is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenias-opposition-espouses-grassroots-issues
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #744
July 14 2014
Campaign groups now find that politicians are interested in their
causes.
By Gayane Lazarian - Caucasus
Popular protests about grassroots issues seem to capture the political
elite's attention more than formal opposition does, even if the latest
one - a campaign to save a historic building in the capital Yerevan
- has ended in failure. Opposition parties have recognised this and
are making various campaign issues their own.
After weeks of protests, efforts to save the 130-year-old Afrikyan
House came to an end on July 8 when demolition workers moved in. The
government sold the centrally-located plot to a company called
Millennium Construction despite having designated the building -
the home of 19th century merchant Armen Afrikyan - a "site of public
interest" in 2008. The company plans to build a hotel on the land
and recreate the exterior of the Afrikyan House elsewhere in the city.
Photographer Hayk Bianjyan has been capturing images of Yerevan's old
buildings since 2003, and joined the campaign to save the Afrikyan
House.
"Thirty-two buildings like this have been removed in Yerevan in the
last 20 years," he told IWPR. "The old town no longer exists."
The preservationist movement formed an alliance with another campaign
group fighting a ten per cent rise in electricity prices, although
that too failed in its objectives, as the higher prices will come
into effect in August. (See Armenians Shocked at Electricity Price
Rise on that issue.)
Despite these setbacks, issue-based rather than overtly political
campaign movements are gaining traction in Armenia.
Some issues raised in this way are making it onto the mainstream
political agenda in a way that has not been seen before.
"The political parties are taking these ideas from civil society and
putting them on the agenda," Yerevand Bozoyan, a political analyst
and head of the Mitk research centre, told IWPR. "As a result, it's
becoming a real headache for the government, and we're seeing the
results in parliament. People have managed to find effective ways to
get their voices heard, thanks to civic groups and political forces."
On June 10, the four opposition parties with seats in parliament -
Prosperous Armenia, the Armenian National Congress (ANC), Heritage
and Dashnaktsutyun - presented the government with a list of demands,
most of which were originally issues raised by campaigning groups.
The disparate demands include a review of fines for parking and driving
offences, a freeze on public transport fares, and a commitment to get
the Nairit chemicals factory back on its feet by paying off corporate
debts and back wages.
Manvel Sargsyan, director of the Armenian Centre for National and
International Studies, said the opposition appeared indifferent to
grassroots movements until recently, but this had changed.
"Even the ANC leadership has said that political parties are unable to
solve the problems facing Armenia without help from civic movements,"
he said. "We also saw how they worked with the Dem.am movement."
Dem.am has spent the last eight months or so fighting against a
proposed pension reform introducing mandatory staff contributions.
After initially refusing to budge, the government has cracked and
sent new amendments to parliament that postpone the reforms' start
date until 2017.
Bozoyan said public activism was still in its infancy in Armenia,
but was moving in the right direction.
"I think time is working against the government and in the public's
favour. People see they can have an impact," he said. "The prime
minister was replaced by someone else who has proposed various new
versions of the [pensions] law, which is a positive thing in itself.
Think about how it used to be, when dialogue of this kind was
inconceivable."
Artur Avtandilyan, a spokesman for Transparency International, said he
doubted that Dem.am could take the credit for Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan being removed and replaced with Hovik Abrahamyan. (See Did
Economic Woes or Moscow's Hand Force Out Armenian Premier? on some
of the other possible causes.)
Avtandilyan also cast doubt on the ability of civil society groups
to force change.
"Their activists have become too predictable for the government,
which knows how to use psychology and technology to unsettle its
opponents, whereas civil society [group] just uses street clashes
with the police and a few statements," he told IWPR. "It's time to
move from quantity to quality."
And despite opposition parties taking up popular causes, Artur Sakunts,
head of the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Civic Assembly, said there
was still no organised political force capable of forcing parliament
to look into the issues that concerned Armenian citizens.
"If the country had such an opposition group, then our country would
be completely different. Of course that would take a lot of work," he
said. "I wouldn't say the government is not concerned, but it does not
believe there's a group that's able to harness public dissatisfaction."
Gayane Lazarian is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenias-opposition-espouses-grassroots-issues