In the past two weeks, Armenia’s protest movement has achieved remarkable successes.
From forcing the resignation of the country’s leader for the last ten
years, to escalating demands to remove the ruling Republican Party from
Parliament, this mobilisation has been able to be as ambitious as it has
been because of the broad support it has across the country’s regions
and classes.
Armen Grigoryan, who currently works at Transparency
International Armenia, has participated in various political movements
in Armenia over the past five years. He was campaign manager for Andrias Ghukasyan’s
2013 presidential campaign. In 2015, Grigoryan ran the No Pasaran
campaign against the proposed constitutional reforms that would
eventually turn Armenia into a parliamentary republic.
This
is a two part interview. The first part was taken on 21 April, two days
before Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation. At the end of the interview, Armen
was arrested on criminal charges of “inciting mass unrest”. He was
released after Sargsyan’s resignation.
