A year after Armenia’s 250,000-person revolution, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan explains what comes next for the country

Last April, Armenia had a bloodless revolution to declare the resignation of their previous President turned Prime Minister, Serzh Sargsyan.
Opposition leader and current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan led these peaceful demonstrations. Pashinyan and his supporters called for a more democratic governmental system in Armenia.
Our team traveled to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to interview Nikol Pashinyan about what comes next for the country. We also spoke with citizens about their thoughts on post-revolution Armenia.
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Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: This is Nikol Pashinyan.

In April 2018, he led a 250,000-person revolution in Armenia.

The peaceful demonstrations were in reponse to the decadelong rule of Serzh Sargsyan.

After serving as president for 10 years, lawmakers elected Sargsyan to become prime minister.

But many Armenians agreed that Sargsyan had been in power for too long.

So they took to the streets to protest it.

The revolution was successful in ousting Sargsyan from power.

And Pashinyan has since been elected prime minister of Armenia.

Pashinyan: Our people were convinced that they decide nothing, and only government or establishment has opportunities and real tools and leverages to decide their destiny, and the destiny of our country.

We had a problem with the official results of elections because continuously the results of elections were falsified.

We had a huge problem of electoral bribes, vote buying, etc. But our last snap parliamentary elections were assessed by international observers as free, democratic, independent, and reliable.

And we had a tremendous change in our political life because of the change of personal behaviour of every citizen.

Narrator: Armenia has historically been a crossroads between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Neighbors include Turkey to the left, Azerbaijan to the right, Iran to the south, and Georgia and Russia to the north.

With such a diverse group of neighbors and a long history of conflict, international relations can be very complicated.

Pashinyan: For us, it’s very important, our relations with our neighbors, Iran and Georgia. Unfortunately, two of our borders from four are closed.

Narrator: Those two closed borders are Turkey and Azerbaijan, largely because of the frozen conflict regarding the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

While international relations can be difficult, Pashinyan is focusing on domestic economic changes to shape the country’s near future. One growth sector he’s confident about is tech.

That includes the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, a free learning center for the Armenian youth that specializes in technology and design.

The center has recently expanded to Paris and Beirut, with plans for more international locations.

Pashinyan: That means that Armenia is starting to export technologists. These kinds of technologists actually are changing the face of Armenia.

Narrator: Armenia has a population of about 2.9 million people for 11,484 square miles.

For comparison, about 8.9 million people live in New York City.

Armen Ghazaryan, head of migration services, hopes this number can grow following the revolution.

Ghazaryan: Armenia is a country of destination, country of transit, and country of origin.

We are all those three in one.

Armenia is also a country that is in the process of change, and this is a very important pull factor.

It brings people here because people want to be part of the change, and they want to transform a country and be engaged in this transformation process, be it on a political level, be it on economic level, and hopefully later on, on social and cultural levels as well.

Narrator: We spoke with citizens in the capital of Armenia about post-revolution life.

Man: Of course, it’s changed, of course.

Because today already, within the people, there’s trust.

Student: Before, our job market was very busy, and new graduates usually weren’t employed.

Now there are many organizations, which are international organizations, that have come here and opened their branch in Armenia.

Woman: I don’t know, I’m from a far village.

Our countryside life hasn’t changed much, nothing more, nothing less.

In our lives, everything is normal, we hope God makes it better.