Absurd Revolution

Notes from Hairenik weighs in on continuing discussion of the daily protests staged by former president Levon Ter-Petrossian in Yerevan’s Liberty Square. While agreeing that electoral violations did take place, the blog says that too few people are interested in staging any revolution in Armenia. Besides, the blog argues, such a situation would likely harm socio-economic improvements in the country.

Apparently each day an estimated 40,000 people attended the show to hear what Ter-Petrossian has to say. He has been spreading the same message–that the elections were not fair, the authorities rule in a totalitarian-type of regime, the regime’s leaders must resign then leave the country, and so on and so forth. But this movement for change will not go anywhere because the majority of citizens simply do not care. If they did, young and old alike, they would be attending in the hundreds of thousands, making demands for the changes they expect. I work with nearly 25 people, most of them under the age of 35, and only about five of them bothered to attend any one of the rallies during the last week (myself included). They are not there on a daily basis because they do not believe in Ter-Petrossian and the change he can supposedly bring, it’s very simple. […]

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Yet I commend the people who remain at Liberty Square day and night for standing by their principles and anticipating that the justice they demand will be served. They are the real heroes, certainly not the leader they are rallying around.

Photo: © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008