Special to the Armenian Weekly
I was fresh out of a 21-year career teaching high school history and United States government, and was looking for something challenging and new. So, I chose to try my luck in Armenia. I knew next to nothing about Armenian culture, politics, and language; and very little of its history. I was hired by the Armenian Environmental Network (AEN) to continue work on providing information to the Armenian Diaspora, as well as on raising the profile of Armenia’s solid waste management problems, and to come up with some sensible solutions. Needless to say, I came with a different perspective than the typical diasporan, which I shared in numerous blog posts in the last two years.
I began work for AEN in June 2011. The organization was founded in 2007 by its current president, Ursula Kazarian, and was soon after joined by Serda Ozbenian, its current executive director. The original mission of AEN was to act as an information portal for diasporans in the United States. Kazarian surmised that diasporans were rarely getting timely, consistent, and accurate information regarding environmental issues in Armenia, and she set out to rectify this problem.
These two years have now come to a close and I would like to share a few final thoughts. Looking back at my blog posts I notice that most of them describe serious shortcomings in environmental practices here in Armenia. These shortcomings still exist today and there is a tremendous amount of work yet to be done if we are to adequately protect Armenia’s precious environment. Mining, deforestation, waste management, and now hydropower facilities pose serious threats to the environment and challenges for environmentalists. These things we already know.
However, I want to focus on some of the positive changes I have seen in Armenia during my tenure here—some minor, some not.
AEN is now established. Now we just need to improve and expand our work. Two years ago no one was talking about solid waste management. Now it is on most people’s minds. We have also engaged our efforts into environmental education and mining reform issues. This is just the beginning.
When I arrived, Yerevan was a trash-filled mess. Today, with the placement of hundreds of trash bins around the kentron, the city is cleaner. And, recycle bins are showing up. Apres!
When I arrived, Mashtots Park was a park in name only. It was essentially an open space with a cafe surrounded by piles of dirt, burning trash, and stray dogs. When the activists decided to fight for its existence, my first thought was “Why? This place is a dump.” Today it is the nicest park in Yerevan filled with people every day, lying on the grass, sitting on the benches, and making use of the trash bins. It is nicer than Lover’s Park even, where lying on the grass is forbidden. Mashtots Park could serve as a model for other park development projects such as the abandoned area in front of the ministry building between Nalbandyan and Hanrapatutyan Streets.
Speaking of Mashtots Park, the environmental activists cut their teeth on this action. Although the saving of Trchkan Waterfall from complete and utter destruction was their first victory, the activists really proved themselves at Mashtots Park. I am proud to say that I followed Hrayr Savsyan into the kiosks, past the police cordon on that amazing day in the winter of 2012. The actions of the environmentalists has inspired other actions as well, such as the highly successful protest against raising rates for marshrutka rides.
Alen Amirkhanian has transformed the Acopian Center for the Environment at the American University of Armenia (AUA) into a real institution of research and environmental policy research. Although new to the job as director, he is doing amazing and important work. His next goal is to establish a Center for Responsible Mining at AUA. In public and behind the scenes Alen, and his staff, are working tirelessly to bring sanity and science to protecting Armenia’s fragile environment.
The Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) took over the Yerevan Zoo and literally saved the health and lives of the animals. Anyone who visited the zoo prior to 2011 knows how bad it was. They also manage a “buffer zone” that abuts the Khosrov reserve. Their work is bearing fruit as they have confirmed a sighting of the very rare Caucasian leopard in the buffer zone. FPWC continually provides environmental education to Armenian youth and works tirelessly to bring attention to environmental issues. They also get an “apres.”
Armenia Tree Project just keeps working and working. They have planted thousands and thousands of trees since my arrival and educated thousands of people. If deforestation is reversed in Armenia it will be because of this organization. Their leadership in environmental matters will become even more critical in these upcoming years.
My friends and partners, which include Green Lane NGO, Tapan, Researchers for Bio-Heating Solutions, Sir Timothy Straight (Norwegian and Finnish Consul), and others: I am awed by your work rate and dedication to environmental causes in Armenia. In addition, Civilnet provides a segment dedicated to environmental issues, and Hetq and Ecolur do fine investigative work on environmental abuses. Visit all of these websites to learn about their positive contributions to environmental change and progress. They are bringing education, innovation, training, information, and positive energy to this country.
I even have to give kudos to some recent governmental decisions. There is a move towards reforming the Environmental Impact Assessment laws. The new ones, due to be enacted this fall, won’t be perfect but do represent an improvement. There is also a move to re-classify tailings wastes as “toxic waste” so that mining companies are duly taxed on their production. I can even say, with confidence, that there are individuals working in the Ministry of Nature Protection who love the environment and want to protect it. Strange, I know! These individuals need to be nurtured and we must learn to work with them.
And my very good friends Sona Ayvazyan, Anna Shahnazaryan, Arpine Galfayan, and Artur Grigoryan. The diaspora and most Armenians do not know about these people, but to me they are national treasures. They work, continually, and mostly on their own dime to bring attention to critical issues. If I could clone them I would, and Armenia would find itself in a much better place as a result. So for you, my dear friends and unsung heroes of Armenia, HALAL A!
These positive steps, though seemingly small, have made a tremendous difference in the mindsets and attitudes of local Armenians. There exists in Armenia a prevailing mood of pessimism and hopelessness amongst the people, resulting in the very serious and ongoing emigration crisis. However, with each small victory hope is rekindled. This is where the diasporan contribution is critical. We need to strengthen the organizations and individuals engaged in the fight for long-term viability of the republic by offering our support. I have merely mentioned those organizations engaged in environmental work; there are many more engaged in strengthening civil society and democratic institutions.
And, in my time, I learned that the single best way to positively impact and support Armenia is to actively participate in the country itself, in some fashion. Whether it is by starting a small business (in a legal fashion), working for a local NGO, or simply offering voluntary assistance, diasporans make a difference. Diasporans bring with them experiences and skills found in very short supply in Armenia. Diasporans bring a positive energy that has been figuratively, and literally, beaten out of the local population. Having a population with fewer than three million people affords diasporans something not found very often in life: a legitimate and rare opportunity to make a difference in the future of an entire country. Think about it.
Kirk Wallace
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- Hajox: Looking Back at Two Years of Environmental Activism in Armenia - November 13, 2013
Very good article. Thanks Mr. Wallace.
Kirk, I miss you! This was really well written. I appreciate knowing you and standing by your side when the streets were clogged up ;)
Man, come to think about, despite the fact that it seems like things are getting worse everyday but this article makes you realize that society has established outlets to improve and progress.
THANK YOU, KIRK, for your work and inspiration! Also, thanks for your great facts in this film: https://vimeo.com/49743180
Thank you, Kirk.
Kirk, some good things happened in the last two years; you were part of most of them. Thanks!
One thing that I want to stress (and not at all to take away from what you wrote) is that some of the small victories have come at the cost of a larger goal. I want to use Mashtots Park as an example.
The park was saved but only at the cost of the rule of law. It was saved because of the activists, but it was saved by the same people that put it at risk in the first place: the oligarchy and its almost unlimited power. In the end it was the President that saved the park though he had no legal power or authority to do so. He did it to make himself and his party look better going into the parliamentary elections. He did it to keep the activist movement from gaining more momentum. He did it to keep the issue from being pressed further because pressing it further might have made it even more clear to the average Armenian (and the rest of the world that cared to pay attention) that the courts and laws here don’t work. The unilateral declaration to save the park put the fact that their is no rule of law in Armenia in the shadows, it reinforced the rule of the oligarchs. Armenia is ruled by the whim of the oligarchs.
A real victory (for the environment, civil society and Armenia as a whole) could only have come through the law and the courts. Since that is not really practical given the current situation, the only way to a real victory is to increase activism in all areas and keep the heat on the oligarchy even when they make strategic retreats– like they did with Mashtots park. The only way to be sure that we won’t have to take to the streets all the time to get the government to do what is right is to have laws that are just and to have the courts and government agencies uphold those laws. In short, to have the rule of law and not rule by oligarchs. The only way to get there from here is through activism; an activism that takes its victories but also continues to push for change despite those victories. The goal is not a park, or a forest or anything like that… The goal should be the rule of law because the rule of law can protect all of those other things.
Hey Steve. Thanks for the reply and, of course, I agree with what you are saying. I’ve had numerous and plentiful conversations with my friends on this very issue. I think we all remember the farcical visit by Sargsyan to the park and the directive to Margaryan to remove the kiosks, not because they were illegal but rather because they were “ugly”. We would all have preferred a bona fide legal redress of the problem but, as you point out, it did not happen.
But, I think my larger point is that the activists provided energy not seen in a very long time in Armenia. This example has resulted in an upswing in civil activism in non-environmental areas as well. I’m hopeful that these actions will bear fruit.
Kirk, you forgot to give yourself a massive apres for the wonderful work you’ve done over the last two years. Armenia will miss you dearly.