Join Harvard's Davis Center for a talk with Hayk Anoushavan Demoyan on Armenia's "velvet revolution" and the questions it raises. 

Dramatic developments in Armenia in late April revealed another interesting political development in the post-Soviet space. Was it a revolution—or simply a successful attempt at a change in power? Can we place the "Armenian case" alongside other similar velvet revolutions that occurred over the last two decades? Armenian youth were at the front line of a series of anti-government protests in Armenia from April to May 2018 that were staged by various political and civil groups in Yerevan and other cities aiming at cardinal changes in the existing political system in Armenia. The bloodless change of power was phenomenal and could herald drastic change in the political elite of Armenia. At the same time it carried forward many challenges the new political leaders will have to deal with in the future.

Speaker 

Hayk Anoushavan Demoyan, director, Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia; visiting scholar, Davis Center