Is the Party Over? Limits and Opportunities of Civil Society in Armenia and Georgia (Research Brief)

The goal of this research project was to examine the phenomenon of “color revolutions” and their correlations with civil society movements in Georgia and Armenia. The focus of the project was to argue that civil society—while detrimental in the successful realization of the Rose Revolution in Georgia—has been appropriated and neutralized by the opposition-turned-government which removed Eduard Shevardnadze from power in 2004. On the other hand in Armenia, after mass demonstrations against the contested 2008 presidential elections took place, authorities cracked down and dispersed the demonstrators, thus preventing a color revolution. However, this crackdown resulted in a renewed dynamism and activism by Armenia’s civil society community, demanding accountability on all government activities. To this end, the research aimed at comparing the civil society evolution and activism levels in Georgia since 2004 and in Armenia since 2008, hoping to derive correlations between increased government limitations on civil liberties and increased activism by civil society groups.

Asbed Kotchikian, of Bentley University, was a 2011-2012 was a Short-Term Travel Grants (STG) fellow.