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Love and the Liminality of Revolution: Interpersonal Transformations In Between the April–May Events in Armenia

2020; Wiley; Volume: 45; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/anhu.12303

1559-9167

Tamar Shirinian,

Balkans: History, Politics, Society

Summary The 2019 “Velvet Revolution” in Armenia, which became colloquially referred to as the “Revolution of Love and Solidarity” (April 13–May 1, 2018), made some arguably major political shifts in the postsocialist republic, removing the oligarchic Prime Minister Serj Sargsyan and setting up a new regime that would fight corruption. Through ethnographic research in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, however, I found that many leftist activists who had participated in grassroots social and political initiatives for years denied that an actual revolution had taken place. Instead they located the potential of this movement in the liminal timespace of the political events, which opened up possibilities of collective action and the transformation of forms of citizen relation. By examining the interpersonal and intimate feelings of activists who were involved in these massive mobilizations, I argue that love, pleasure, joy, and celebration allow us to see the transformational possibilities of social movements that are embedded not in the movement as a historical event as such but in the in between of the event.