Monday, July 22 2013

Civil disobedience actions have been held in Yerevan since Saturday. 
Groups of young people are picketing bus stops all over the city in protest of the decision of the municipal authorities to raise the public transport fare from 100 AMD to 150 AMD. 

The protesters are distributing and sticking leaflets urging passengers to pay 100 AMD instead of 150 AMD. But some smart drivers have begun charging the money in advance.

Protesting are even some showbiz figures, who do not use public transport but are still willing to support their people. For two days already actor Hayk Marutyan and blogger Alen Simonyan have been carrying people from Komitas Street to the Opera House free of charge.  Ten more drivers joined them today. But this is not all: young singer Grigor Kokchyan has urged all his colleagues having no own cars to follow his example and to start carrying people by taxi. 

The Hayazn Union is planning an action of protest in front of the Municipality building on Tuesday. Among the protesters will be drivers who refuse to carry people for the new charge. The Preparliament Movement has urged people to join the ongoing actions. 

Political forces are not as active as NGOs and are just expressing concern instead of taking action.

ArmInfo's correspondent reports that some unknown people appear every time young protesters start urging passengers not to pay the new fare.  Those people keep controlling the drivers and are always there to prevent them from supporting the protesters. 

The drivers react differently. Some of them have gone on a strike, some are showing aggression against disobedient passengers. 

One driver has told ArmInfo that the rise has made his work unprofitable. "After the rise the passenger traffic has dropped, while our bosses are claiming more money from us. Some drivers are so stressed that they may well have an accident. And who will be blamed if they do - of course, the drivers. So, let the people not use our services and continue their protests. If they force the authorities to revise the decision, we will be happy," the driver said.

At first the police were tolerant towards the protesters but now they are becoming rude. As regards the Municipality, it is reported to be fining disobedient drivers. 

Meanwhile, social network users have started collecting signatures against the decision, but some networks are already beginning to fail, with the users fearing that the authorities may shortly disconnect them.