Armenians traditionally do not rebel because of social issues. In addition, emigration likewise eases the tension. Some of those people, who could have taken to the streets to demonstrate, prefer to leave the country.   

Thomas de Waal, a senior associate at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment, specializing primarily in the South Caucasus region, said the aforementioned to the RFE/RL Armenian service.

“I believe we will continue to see protests in Armenia, yet it is difficult to predict specifically what will cause them. But I don’t think it would be around social issues. It is the political problem that will make people take to the street.  

“The majority of the population is dissatisfied with the situation in the country, whereas the main opposition forces are unable to mobilize the public discontent.     

“But we may become the eyewitnesses to a situation when a specific matter will make the [Armenian] people take to the street, and there will come a time when these protests will become serious in nature,” de Waal noted, in particular. 

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am