This year, we will be celebrating our 16th year in Armenia.
It was quite an adventure full of so many discoveries, joy, anger, many frustrations accompanied by nurturing experiences and growth.
A few months ago, we were on the streets of Yerevan together with thousands of people, full of hope and protesting. I lived through the Velvet Revolution together with my kids. The older ones (18 and 16) were outside all the time, for almost a month. There were school strikes and from early morning people would gather on the corner of different streets to close it down and self-organize for sit-ins and civil disobedience peaceful actions.
So each morning, the older ones would gather their backpack filled with necessities (in case of emergencies) for example some snacks, water, vinegar in case of tear gas by police, money, cloths, extra batteries and a book which was useful during long sit-ins. I would go over security measures with them each morning (what if they were faced by police, what if they were arrested, or stuck somewhere or in case of violent riots...) each situation was reviewed discussed and we agreed on specific measures for each. And we had to keep contact and call each other from time to time to be on the safe side. Their dad was traveling during that time and it was a little bit scarier to be the sole parent responsible during these unstable circumstances.
During the day, I would either monitor the peaceful actions as a human rights defender, or join my feminist friends and colleagues to hold our own protest actions and walk around the city together with my youngest one, who also was eager to be part of the exciting movement on the streets. At nights, we would open the windows and start our collective pots and pans action, banging and making noise to alert the Serj Sargsyan's regime to leave. This was an initiative which started by one of the team members of Pashinyan, Zara Batoyan (who is the present minister of Social affairs and Labor). She thought that this will make the revolution more inclusive and diverse, reaching out to those who couldn't leave their houses and encouraging them to join with these kind of alternative actions. So every night at 11pm the whole city was making noise with all the pants and pots they could find at home.
I had also some though moments, the day I was arrested and taken to the police station with other protesters. I stayed there for 3 hours and finally was released but all the time thinking about what my kids would do, feeling angry at the police with their illegal actions, thinking if i will be able to make it home that day. But it all ended up well and i have a very funny story of that event which i will share with my grand-children for years to come :)
After some depressing times with all the political realities in the past decade or so, I was finally feeling a genuine hope for a change towards a real democracy and rule of law.
At the beginning of the past year, I was ready to move out from this place, thinking like many here that things would never change and we were going slowly moving towards a deeper authoritarian regime, where i wasn't feeling safe anymore.
So, one day, it happened and the whole world was amazed on how Armenians were able to put an end to an oligarchic republican regime and give the power back to the people. Nikol Pashinyan and his team, together with civil society actors were able to peaceful transition to a new Armenia, where the fight against corruption and restoring democratic processes were of outmost priority.
People started smiling again, they were kind to each other on the streets, they started believing again in themselves and in their inner power. They regained their dignity, took over the streets by the thousands, conducted a free and fair elections for the first time in such a long period. And today the process continues with many challenges; some from the previous regime trying to sabotage, others trying to discredit everything this new government is doing, and a few who lost their privileges or can't find their place in this new reality try to criticize almost everything non-stop, making presumptions, manipulating informations, trying to find any excuse to prove that this new leadership is not as good as we think it is.
Despite all this, I am still very positive regarding these new processes. Of course there are many challenges, flaws, problems but they seem so much less significant compared to those we used to have during the previous regime that it seems to me we should be more on the constructive/supportive mode without losing our sense of justice. So watching out the new government step by step is a must, but so is choosing our battles wisely, since the most important thing was achieved which was finally having a government with a genuine political will to create a democratic country where human rights, equality, dignity and law are priorities.
But some people forget that all this takes time, continuous will and dedicated work.
So let's see what will come next! we still have many worrying issues to deal with as a state; relations with Russia, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabagh and the economic hardship.
Things will be ok, i see the change in my daily work. I am witnessing the small steps. I am also trying to cope with the extreme negativity and hateful content on social media; filtering the good criticism and constructive analysis by many from all the trash.
Here is maybe our last chance for a better country, let's see how we will use it.
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| closing the streets with feminist activists |
A few months ago, we were on the streets of Yerevan together with thousands of people, full of hope and protesting. I lived through the Velvet Revolution together with my kids. The older ones (18 and 16) were outside all the time, for almost a month. There were school strikes and from early morning people would gather on the corner of different streets to close it down and self-organize for sit-ins and civil disobedience peaceful actions.
So each morning, the older ones would gather their backpack filled with necessities (in case of emergencies) for example some snacks, water, vinegar in case of tear gas by police, money, cloths, extra batteries and a book which was useful during long sit-ins. I would go over security measures with them each morning (what if they were faced by police, what if they were arrested, or stuck somewhere or in case of violent riots...) each situation was reviewed discussed and we agreed on specific measures for each. And we had to keep contact and call each other from time to time to be on the safe side. Their dad was traveling during that time and it was a little bit scarier to be the sole parent responsible during these unstable circumstances.
 |
| Pots and pans action at night |
I had also some though moments, the day I was arrested and taken to the police station with other protesters. I stayed there for 3 hours and finally was released but all the time thinking about what my kids would do, feeling angry at the police with their illegal actions, thinking if i will be able to make it home that day. But it all ended up well and i have a very funny story of that event which i will share with my grand-children for years to come :)
 |
| in the police car, the day i was arrested |
At the beginning of the past year, I was ready to move out from this place, thinking like many here that things would never change and we were going slowly moving towards a deeper authoritarian regime, where i wasn't feeling safe anymore.
So, one day, it happened and the whole world was amazed on how Armenians were able to put an end to an oligarchic republican regime and give the power back to the people. Nikol Pashinyan and his team, together with civil society actors were able to peaceful transition to a new Armenia, where the fight against corruption and restoring democratic processes were of outmost priority.
People started smiling again, they were kind to each other on the streets, they started believing again in themselves and in their inner power. They regained their dignity, took over the streets by the thousands, conducted a free and fair elections for the first time in such a long period. And today the process continues with many challenges; some from the previous regime trying to sabotage, others trying to discredit everything this new government is doing, and a few who lost their privileges or can't find their place in this new reality try to criticize almost everything non-stop, making presumptions, manipulating informations, trying to find any excuse to prove that this new leadership is not as good as we think it is.
 |
| Civil disobedience with the students |
Despite all this, I am still very positive regarding these new processes. Of course there are many challenges, flaws, problems but they seem so much less significant compared to those we used to have during the previous regime that it seems to me we should be more on the constructive/supportive mode without losing our sense of justice. So watching out the new government step by step is a must, but so is choosing our battles wisely, since the most important thing was achieved which was finally having a government with a genuine political will to create a democratic country where human rights, equality, dignity and law are priorities.
But some people forget that all this takes time, continuous will and dedicated work.
So let's see what will come next! we still have many worrying issues to deal with as a state; relations with Russia, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabagh and the economic hardship.
Things will be ok, i see the change in my daily work. I am witnessing the small steps. I am also trying to cope with the extreme negativity and hateful content on social media; filtering the good criticism and constructive analysis by many from all the trash.
Here is maybe our last chance for a better country, let's see how we will use it.
