Notes from the Armenian Blogosphere
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006
Welcome to another round up of posts from the Armenian blogosphere, and this week is another of those rare occasions — a number of bloggers dealing with the same theme. Interestingly, this week that theme was racism and xenophobia, both at home and abroad.
To start the ball rolling, on Friday there was a demonstration staged outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Yerevan to protest the deaths of ethnic Armenians in Russia. Akhtamar at Armyouth has an interesting post detailing her thoughts in the aftermath of the demo.
It seems as though there is SOME hope after all in regards to the youth and trying to make some changes in Armenia. While I had received some indifferent attitudes from youth who were simply passersby and refused to sign the letter, there were these young activists who stayed up until 5am the day before to make these posters.
There are times when I think that the young Armenian population is so cynical and they feel as though they do not belong to this society. “Ahh, what does it matter if I litter this bag, it’s not MY street anyway.” Or “this country has no future, the only thing I can do is leave” – these are things I hear practically everyday from so many young people. And this is a rather prevalent attitude throughout the country.
Yet there is a flipside to this as well. A small, warm and increasing movement of interested young people is seeking to take their future into their own hands. These are some of the activists you see in these photos. They see that what is happening in their country is not right and they want to do something about it.
This IS the hope for Armenia.
Akhtamar also details some of the few negative responses she heard from passerbys on Friday. As I was there as well I can vouch for their veracity, and it has to be said that it never ceases to amaze me how some Armenians can always find an excuse for not becoming active in anything. I mean, it’s only the future of the nation and country, right?
There was an older man who approached me and said in Armenian (approximately these words) “this is great and all, but it’s not going to get you anywhere. I agree with you but I won’t sign.” And then continued to tell me how the Foreign Minister really could care less about this all, he would not come down to say anything and that in the end none of this would make a difference.
[…]
There was an older woman who was walking by and as I asked her to sign the letter against the fact that Armenians were being murdered in Moscow she told me, “they are doing a good job!” Surprised, I responded and asked, “why do you say that?” and she said, “Because Armenians shouldn’t be living in foreign countries. Let them come and live in their own homeland. What are they doing living on foreign soil….”
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006
Anyway, Akhtamar posts and points us in the direction of more photos taken by a foreign volunteer working in Armenia. Julius has now set up his own blog at http://allfolksblog.blogspot.com. It’s interesting to also note that not only were Akhtamar and Julius in attendance, but one of the event’s organizers, Isabella Sarkisyan, also has her own blog at http://bekaisa.livejournal.com.
Besides them, I was there and so too were Zarchka from Life Around Me and Anoush from the AVC blog and Anoush Armenia where she also posts her thoughts on the protest.
My fingers are numb and my nose is bright red from the cold, and I recall that last time I was standing here it was so hot outside that fellow protesters were complaining about the heat and trying to reassemble our picket line to fall within the shade of the trees.
We’re still speaking out about the same thing- 7 months later.
However, this is no tirade or complaint. I’m happy to see that there are young people here in Yerevan that WILL organize and protest again, and again. I answered to so many passers-by who said “this is useless,” “they aren’t going to stand up to Russia,” “they’re not going to listen to you,” “the government doesn’t care,” that we aren’t necessarily here for immediate results, but voicing your concern is the fist step.
Encouraging widespread civic participation and convincing citizens of the efficacy of that participation is a large task, and I’m not expecting it to happen any time soon. But with every one, two, or dozen, of those passersby who were convinced by the pleas of our picketers to stop and sign the petition, we are making progress.
Finally, after some of us cleaned off the swastikas daubed near Republic Square in October, Thomas Seropian at Follow The Way organized another cleanup on Saturday after the swastikas recently reappeared. He posts some photographs on his blog. All in all a productive and encouraging time for the Armenian Blogosphere. Hopefully we’ll have more of the same in the future.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006
In the meantime, my initial post on Friday’s action along with more photos can be found here.
Nice photos
Comment by Zarchka — November 20, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
Armyouth has since posted commentary on a news story from A1 Plus earlier on in the day. In the item, head of the Union of Armenians in Russia, Ara Abrahamyan, tries to downplay concerns about the deaths of ethnic Armenians there. It should be noted that not only does Abrahamyan and his brother have significant business interests in Armenia, but he is also considered very close to Russian President Vladmimir Putin.
Comment by Onnik — November 20, 2006 @ 8:27 pm
Comment by Onnik — November 21, 2006 @ 7:30 pm
Comment by Onnik — November 22, 2006 @ 1:33 am
Comment by Onnik — November 25, 2006 @ 2:59 pm
Interesting blog - i already bookmarked it and will surely come back often, as i am intersted in all caucasian countries. I am married to a georgian woman (we live in Germany now), so I blog on Georgia with my own photos. Please have a look. I would be very happy if we could exchange links.
Greetings,
Sönke Henning Tappe
Comment by henningi — December 3, 2006 @ 2:15 am