Mashtots Park Movement

This article is about the protests in Mashtots Park, Yerevan. For the wider movement, see Occupy movement.

Mashtots Park Movement
Part of the Occupy movement
Time for the Self-Determined Citizen, a Mashtots Park Movement poster
DateFebruary 11, 2012 (2012-02-11) – May 1, 2012 (2012-05-01)
(2 months, 1 week and 4 days)
Location
Mashtots Avenue, Yerevan, Armenia

40°10′54.9214″N 44°30′34.78″E / 40.181922611°N 44.5096611°E / 40.181922611; 44.5096611
Caused byPreservation of public green areas, environmental purposes, civic activism, self-determination as citizens, against oligarchy
Methods
Parties
Environmentalists
6 dismantling brigades of 10 people each[1]
Lead figures

Non-centralized leadership
Tigran Khzmalyan
Andrias Ghukasyan

Serzh Sargsyan (President)
Taron Margaryan (Yerevan Mayor)
Vladimir Gasparyan (Police Chief)

Number
up to few hundred
300 activists (march to the Yerevan city hall, February 20, 2012)[2]

Mashtots Park Movement (Armenian: Մաշտոցի պուրակի շարժում), also known as #SaveMashtotsPark and OccupyMashtots began as a sit-in on February 11, 2012 in Mashtots Park, Yerevan.[3] The protest was initiated by "This City Belongs to Us" civic initiative, and grew into a full-scale movement. The main issues were illegal or inadequate constructions, the destruction of trees and green zones in Yerevan, but now the questions of citizens' self-determination, fight against corruption and oligarchy, the prevalence of public interests over private have been raised. While the US occupy movements act against the bureaucratic system resulting in social and economic inequality, Mashtots Park Movement places itself in a different socioeconomic context - oligarchy, "people above the law" who, having economical and political resources, place their interests above those of the people.[4]

  1. ^ "The First Bolt of System". Lragir.am. April 15, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  2. ^ "Happenings at Mashtots Park". Armenian Environmental Network. February 26, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  3. ^ "Protest continues at Mashtots Park". A1+. March 2, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  4. ^ "Experts: Armenian oligarchy's fate at stake in Mashtots Park". ArmeniaNow. April 2, 2012. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2012.