Armenia: Is Civil Society Taking Shape?

???? ?????? ??? wonders whether the recent presidential election in Armenia hasn’t kick-started the development of a more effective civil society in the country. In particular it says that the amount of online activism that has emerged through blogs is unprecedented and says that it hopes a real pro-democracy movement will emerge by the time of the next parliamentary election in Armenia.

Armenian society (or some segment of it at least) is becoming more active and less apathetic to the situation in the country, which can be summarized simply as one where the people are disrespected and ignored on a daily basis by their leaders. This leads me to speculate as to whether all of former president Levon Ter-Petrosian’s malicious statements and actions as well as the March 1 events, might have inadvertently sowed the seeds for a bona fide civil society to grow in the country.

[…]

Whether dialogue like this is productive remains to be seen. But I think there is potential. The question also of where this nascent “movement” is going and who will lead it, is still up in the air. It’s possible that it might end up being led by Heritage or the HHSh or one man (maybe LTP, although I dont think LTP cares much for a democratic movement as he has already accomplished his goal of humiliating, alienating, and weakening those who removed him).