"BUS REVOLUTION"

The Yerevan mayor's office announced an increase of the public transport fare from 100 to 150 dram, which approximately the same as from 20 to 30 eurocents. The reason is clear. People in the know say that most of the public transport in Armenia runs not on petrol, but on natural gas. Such old vehicles as PAZ can still be seen on Yerevan's streets. It was much more affordable than petrol and oil as long as Russia supplied it for 180 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres. But recently, following protracted negotiations, Moscow increased the gas price to 270 dollars. And the Armenian economy could not deal with this blow.

Initially, there was talk in Yerevan about increasing the tariffs for small consumers of gas. Then came the turn of electricity bills. Despite the presence of the nuclear power station the share of gas in the energy sector is still high. Now the Yerevan mayor's office announced an increase in the public transport fare. For Armenian consumers this blow was too much to bear.

The Yerevan mass media report that on the day new tariffs entered into force almost every minibus became a venue for a spontaneous protest. Passengers en masse refused to pay the new fare. For their part, the drivers did not wish to drive them for the old tariff. Some reacted to this with humour, or rather "mixing laughter and tears". The passengers retorted: "Let Taron Margaryan pay the remaining 50 dram. I have to change buses. How can I pay 50% more? I cannot afford this. I will have to walk," News.am cites one of them as saying. Proposals came in to mint a new coin, worth 150 dram, bearing the portrait of the incumbent mayor of Yerevan, Taron Margaryan. Sometimes disputes between drivers and passengers over the fare reached the dangerous zone. A minibus driver was rushed to one of the Yerevan clinics with a knife wound.

Meanwhile, open-ended pickets began outside the Yerevan mayor's office and a protest movement was launched, called "Pay 100 dram each!". Soon its participants brought to the mayor's office a cake in the shape of a 50-dram coin with "Bon appetite" emblazoned on it. However, nobody of the officials came out during the 30 minutes the activists spent in front of the mayor's office, and Valeriy Osipyan, deputy chief of police, did not let the picketers take the cake inside the building.

The press paid unprecedented attention to "bus pickets". Indeed, the current "bus revolution" coincided with those events that are in Armenia pompously called "civilizational choice": whether Yerevan should remain a member of the European Union's Eastern Neighbourhood or prefer the Russian integration projects. This "civilizational choice" is accompanied in Yerevan with an impressive anti-Russian hysteria and everything is used to this end - from the "female robe" worn by Hrachya Harutyunyan, the culprit of a lethal traffic accident caught in Podolskiy, to the supplies of weapons to Azerbaijan.

The increased public transport fares in Yerevan seem to have pushed many to think about the cost of this very "civilizational choice", with one trip in a wrecked PAZ costing the same in dram and luma as a loaf of bread or a cement bag. Indeed, until recently Armenia somehow made the ends meet exclusively owing to Russia's grand nature and its financial injections - both direct and indirect ones. Moscow supplied Yerevan with gas at prices considerably lower than the market ones, erased debts even for this almost free gas, accepting as payment non-functioning and, by and large, redundant factories of the Soviet Union's military-industrial complex. Russia has in effect taken on itself the duty to protect Armenia from foreign threats. But even this generous aid did not allow Yerevan to create an economic "airbag" that would be able to soften the blow from the increased gas prices. Did Russia when it increased the gas price actually punish Armenia for not being enthusiastic about the offer to join the Eurasian Union, or is this only about commerce? At any rate, there is no doubt that given its current economic situation Armenia simply cannot allow such a luxury as the oft-repeated "civilizational choice".

The "bus protests" became just another manifestation of the growing social tensions in Armenia. The main reason is not even the increased price for Russian gas. The root cause is much deeper and lies in the very "state failure" of Armenia. As a result of its own aggressive policy Armenia was isolated from regional infrastructure, energy and economic projects and was incapable of building a self-reliant, or more precisely, a functioning economy.

The domestic political consequences of the "bus revolution" are also of interest. The authorities in Armenia have realized that the "protest wave" cannot be ignored. The Yerevan mayor's office was compelled to cancel its previous decision, although Taron Margaryan made a special statement to point out that sooner or later the price will still have to change and that with the tariff of 100 dram there will be no civilised transport. As a result, pickets outside the mayor's office continue.

Commenting on this situation, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, deliberately or not, outlined the main phobias of the Armenian ruling elite. He described the movement that started in Yerevan as "spontaneous" and pointed out that it is not partisan. Later, however, he had to admit that some parties wish to capitalise on this, but assured that the movement pursues the objective of social justice. He then mused that "civil public movements are being formed in Armenia and we have to take them into consideration when making state decisions". He then, finally, laid the blame squarely on the mayor's office and reminded that it is the Yerevan mayor's office that is in complete charge of the changes of public transport tariffs.

The anxiety of the authorities is easy to understand. The Armenian ruling elite realize that such "bus protests" are too dangerous to ignore. Quite recently they almost derailed the conduct of the Football World Cup in Brazil when hundreds of thousands of people took to streets in Rio de Janeiro and San-Paulo. Their slogans immediately went beyond what concerns only transport - the demonstrators accused the government of corruption, indifference to people's needs and so on. Earlier, there was unrest in Bulgaria caused by the growth in utility tariffs.

Today they understand in Yerevan that the line between social protests and political slogans is fine. Especially if the authorities have nothing to show to their citizens in the way of achievements.

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V�b�'�L#adlandıran baş nazir qeyd edib ki, bu aksiyalar partiyalı xarakter daşımır. Bununla yanaşı, o etiraf edib ki, bəzi partiyalar yaranmış vəziyyətdən sui-istifadə etməyə cəhd göstərirlər. Lakin baş nazir vurğulayıb ki, bu hərəkat sırf sosial ədalət tələbindən doğur. "Ermənistanda vətəndaş və ictimai qüvvələr formalaşır və qərarlar qəbul edərkən, biz bu faktı nəzərə almalıyıq", - deyə T.Sarkisyan qeyd edib. 

Daha sonra bütün günahı meriyanın üzərinə atan baş nazir xatırladıb ki, ictimai nəqliyyatda tariflərlə bağlı qərar qəbul etmək səlahiyyəti yalnız İrəvan meriyasına aiddir.

İqtidarın bu əsəbiliyini yaxşı anlayırıq. Hakim rejim yaxşı dərk edir ki, bu cür "avtobus etirazları"na laqeyd yanaşmaq olmaz. Axı, elə bu yaxınlarda analoji aksiyalar, az qala, gələn il Braziliyada futbol üzrə Dünya Çempionatının keçirilib-keçirilməyəcəyini sual altında qoya bilərdi:  Rio-de Janeyro və San-Pauluda küçələrə çıxan yüz minlərlə insan əvvəlcə məhz "nəqliyyat" mövzusunda şüarlar səsləndirsələr də, sonradan iqtidarı korrupsiyada, vətəndaşların problemlərinə etinasız yanaşmaqda və s. ittiham etməyə başladılar.

Bundan bir qədər əvvəl isə Bolqarıstanda kommunal xərclərin artımına etirazdan doğan aksiyalar əməlli-başlı iğtişaşlara yol açmışdı.

Odur ki, bu gün İrəvanda yaxşı dərk edirlər ki, sosial etirazlarla siyasi şüarlar arasında sərhəd nisbidir. Ələlxüsus, hakimiyyətin öz vətəndaşlarına hər hansı uğur və nailiyyət nümayiş etdirmədiyi dövlətdə...