I said LTP’s support was drawn “disproportionately from the educated middle class”. Let me clarify that. I saw three groups out there.

1) Hardcore LTP supporters. This was, as Onnik says, maybe 20% of the population. It is a mixed group — some young people who don’t remember how bad things were under LTP in the 1990s, some older people who revere him as the Father Of The Country, some intellectuals who love him because he’s an intellectual in action.

2) People who just hate the government and/or the way things are here. I think these are the people who Onnik says he’s photographed again and again.

3) People who were particularly pissed about the way the government stole THIS election.

Not all these people were strong LTP supporters (though many were). Some didn’t vote for him or even like him much. But he was what they had, I think.

Oh, and also (4) some hooligans and (5) some provocateurs. Maybe a lot of (5), depending on who you talk to.

Doug M.

The remainder was split among other candidates — mainly Artur Baghdasarian and Vahan Hovannisian, with an unknown but probably significant number who sold their votes to the highest bidder, most likely the prime minister, Serge Sargsyan.

However, there were more people from civil society and the middle class supporting Levon than usual, in part because he is considered a more educated, intellectual, academic and pro-Western figure than any of the other opposition alternatives who were running. However, that wasn’t a huge number of people, but it was enough if you consider that for once they were also at rallies, and in the case of the media and civil society they utilized their own “administrative resources” in his support.

Nevertheless, for every educated, middle-class, progressive young Armenia who supported Levon, I know three or four that didn’t. Anyway.

I just find it amazing how mostly the educated middle class people would have to protest in a society where by definition they are doing better than the people who did not vote for Ter-Petrosian. It would imply that people who are not doing so well are “to a degree” happy with the way things are going, and the people who are doing better are less happy.

The logic would be that if you’re poor, uneducated… and the rest of the stereotypes then you have nothing to loose and you risk your safety to demand change.

I always found people who vote for the opposition to be more snobbish, sometimes bordering on racist, looking down on these “poor, uneducated, unsophisticated masses” that do not vote for “their candidate.”

Doug, this is a general comment, not an attack on your article, just to clarify this matter.

Anyhow, if Armenia were close to joining, say, NATO like Macedonia is hoping to be then a few thousand protesters would be able to put real pressure on the government, sadly this is not the case. So, to keep your head safe I suggest to write something about the upcoming Macedonia name dispute crisis and the risk of missing on NATO membership because of the Greek veto.

What’s your opinion? Will we have the “Republic of Upper Macedonia” (I hate this term “upper”) or the “Republic of Macedonia-Skopje?

Best wishes,

Fidel

Anyway, I think I’ve decided to continue blogging regardless, but of course, any information considered to incite unrest or insurrection or whatever risks actions from the authorities.

There’s going to be a fine line to tread and I’m not sure how it will play out. I’m going to try anyway. Let’s see what happens.

I would like to mention that AFOE is currently (and finally) updating their blogroll. Readers interested in what is going on in Armenia right now should also check our blogroll under “Eastern Europe”.