Issue and Opponent: Building pavillions had been moved to Mashtot Park, thereby obstructing limited green space. Activists were having difficulty getting responses from the municipality to protect the park. Dilemma Action: Activists noted that it was ironic that the project was dubbed the “[city] Center Greening” project (“Kentron Kanachabatum”). “Interestingly, the… project is engaged not in expanding green spaces and caring for them, but in construction,” noted the group “We Are the Guardians of This City.” The protests began as a sit-in at Mashtots Park, initiated by the “This City Belongs to Us” civic initiative. Activists created a picket area, preventing further construction activities, including some protesters that lay on the road in front of construction vehicles attempting to enter and, on other occasions, broke out into song while blockading.
Outcomes: The action led to over 10,000 signatures for a petition supporting the protection of the park. The actions led to broader public support. According to Vagram Sogomonyan, Mashots Park turned into a “horizontal, decentralized platform for self-organization, which united very different people”. And it was in Mashots Park that protesters began to doubt the myth of an “apolitical” fight to solve individual issues. The police threatened the protesters. The actions managed to delay construction, and then the mayor took them down saying they were “ugly.”