From Freedom Sq. to Republic Sq.: Geographies of the 2018 Armenian Revolution

Keywords: urban development, urban geopolitics, urban space, social movements, revolution
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Despite almost all the political demonstrations in contemporary Armenia, which have taken place in Freedom (Opera) Square, the image of the 2018 revolution is linked to another space, Republic Square. Using a grounded theory approach, this research will mainly focus on interrogating the role of the construction of Northern Avenue in 2007, which directly connects two main squares (Freedom & Republic) of Yerevan in altering Armenian political culture, and the spatial shift from Freedom Square to Republic Square as the symbolic space for Armenian social movements. By applying the conceptual frame of social production and social construction of space and place (Low, 2017), I will examine the historical, political, and economic forces that led to the space of Northern Avenue being socially produced, and how the meaning of this new space is socially constructed through everyday practices, collective memories, feelings, imaginations, ideas, and ideals.
Political discourses and identities sedimented in Opera Square via various moments of collective actions in past decades were exfoliated between 2007 to 2018 which ended in the emergence of alternative subjectivities and identities among young Armenians who overthrew the government in the 2018 revolution. For this research, data collection has been completed over a yearlong stay in Yerevan city, where interviews were conducted with citizens, locals who had participated in the 2018 revolution, architects and planners involved in city planning, and members of civic organizations and urban activists.