About Rallies, Demonstrations and the Right to Assembly

Uzogh has an interestingly skeptical viewpoint on the recent political demonstrations and events held in Yerevan, hinting, that their hopes for becoming the Armenian version of Kmara (civic resistance movement in the republic of Georgia which undermined the government of then president of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze) will fail. The blogger writes:

I have always been amazed by the yearning of people to protest on the street. Everyone knows, that demonstrations, in their essence, are pointless when it comes to fighting evil […] demonstrations, rallies, protests and all those sorts of things organized by the politically marginal groups have but one aim – to show off.[…] You can spend your time finding euphemisms for naming the process of gathering protesting youth – calling all that as Alternative, Barekendan, defence of Shirayr Sefilyan’s rights and fight for preserving architectural monuments. However, they will never become anything more then “representatives of various non-governmental organizations”.

Uzogh then speculates, that the people organizing such events represent marginalized viewpoints, lack substantial backing and force (also hinting, that their main purpose is to receive grants from organizations like “Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute, European Union, National Endowment for Democracy, International Republican Institute, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, USAID, and the Council of Europe“), which is why Armenia’s government and the police don’t pay much attention to them, “thank God”, he adds…
Interestingly, Bekaisa, who is one of the organizers of the events tagged “marginals” in the mentioned post, has preferred to stay clear of discussions, although her one sentence post: “Yes, but there must be a way.” was perceived by Uzogh as an attempt to answer him.