It’s been included in the Oxford English Dictionary since 2004, but it’s
unlikely that more than a handful of people in Armenia know what a flash mob is.
It’s even less likely that anybody actually cares, but nonetheless, history was
made in Yerevan today when Sksel e,
an informal grouping of civil society activists working to activate youth in
time for the May parliamentary election, organized Armenia’s first ever
flash mob.

In modern usage, flash mob describes a group of people who assemble suddenly
in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then
quickly disperse. They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or
other communications networks.

The term has also been applied to distributed mobs, who use similar means to
coordinate sudden large scale simultaneous actions in multiple locations. An
example of such an action is the widespread use of mobile phones in the 2005
civil unrest in France to coordinate widespread social disruption.



Usually, the organizers of such events don’t tell participants what exactly will
happen and why, and today’s event was no exception. Apart from a non-descriptive
advert posted on various blogs such as this one, no other details were announced
prior to the event. Even so, after two previously successful events, enough
interest was aroused to attract around 200 young Armenians to turn up at the
park opposite Yerevan’s Conservatory.

Of course, most of those attending were also present at Sksel e’s
Barekendan
and
Կես կատակ կես լուրջ ցուՅցահանդես
events, but for Armenia even this is impressive given the level of apathy and
non-involvement in society. However, when interviewed by one journalist, a
15-year-old girl said she had attended all three events so far, but wasn’t too
sure what this one was hoping to achieve. Still, perhaps that’s not too
surprising.

Standing at the corner of each intersection leading into the roundabout opposite
Yerevan’s Opera House, as well as circling the grassy area in its center, each
participant stood with a newspaper reading separate articles of their choice out
aloud. Also wearing hats made out of newspapers, the sight and sound of that
alone was surreal and unexpected enough for Armenia even in this day and age.

As were leaflets handed out asking “are you satisfied with yourself, or with the
person next to you?,” “are you guilty?,” and “are you afraid, or don’t you
care?”

Tamar Palandjian, Youth Program Coordinator at the
Civil Society Institute (CSI) says that the purpose of the event was
straightforward enough. Under banners that asked “Shall We Read?” the event was
aimed at encouraging the population to read newspapers. With all of the
television stations under direct or indirect government control, the only
plurality of opinion and diversity of information can be found in the print
media.

Even so, newspaper circulation remains low with actual readership even lower,
and even the most popular of papers can publish only a few thousand copies each
day. Nevertheless, if the purpose of the event was to get people to take
interest in the press, then the flash mob achieved its goal. Cars and public
transport passing by stopped to take copies of the newspapers participants were
handing out until the police asked the organizers to stop in case traffic was
disrupted.

Once again, there were even a few members of the Diaspora in attendance,
including representatives of two significant organizations albeit there in a
personal capacity, and most observers were overall impressed with the new
approaches taken by Sksel e with regards to activating society, and in
particular youth. However, many still remain unsure as to where Sksel e is
heading, and whether it’s ultimate goal is clear enough.

One participant attending for the first time, for example, said that she wanted
to be involved with something, but wasn’t entirely sure what. Still, such events
might help direct young Armenians in that sense, and it was interesting to see
that after the initial action itself, participants were encouraged to cut out
those articles they found most interesting to paste to a large board erected in
the park.

“They’re making their own newspaper,” remarked one young Armenian from the
Diaspora. “I wonder what it says?”

More events are planned in the very near future.

Find pictures at

blog.transparency.am/2007/03/18/sksel-e-flash-mob