Armine Poghosyan. “In order to make serious changes in the community, one must be among the decision-makers”

Armine Poghosyan was elected a member of the Council of Elders in the enlarged community of Araks, Armavir region, as a result of the December 5, 2021 local elections. Presented by the “Alliance of Defenders of Democracy for the Republic” party. By the way, 7 out of 21 members of the newly elected Council of Elders or about 33% are women.

Armine Poghosyan has been the President of the “Call of Light” NGO since 2018. Has been active in public for the last four years. She says she made the decision to run in the local elections when realized that in order to make serious changes in the community, she had to be among the decision-makers.

As I gradually grew from a supporter of residents in various community issues to an organizer, unifying, many began to urge me to run in the upcoming local elections. That’s why I could not fully succeed in my initiatives. There came a moment when I realized that I was not succeeding because I had no leverage. And I decided to definitely run in the elections.

Our vision is to develop the community in different directions, guided by the principle of maintaining equality between communities. One of our program provisions is the implementation of support programs for the establishment of social enterprises in the community, which will be beneficial for both the residents and the community.

 In Araks it is customary to engage in greenhouse farming. In this respect, the majority of women in the community are self-employed. I think it is a priority for the women of our community to implement various empowerment and development programs to make them feel more confident. My goal is to provide empowerment for women in the community, develop business plans, raise awareness of various programs and opportunities.

To date, I have not noticed any party approach, it seems that the partisanship is more formal. Now that the community is enlarged to include 13 settlements with a variety of issues, the council will have to work harder. For example, I read 4-5 hours a day. And if I somehow manage, I try to read, to be informed, it will be difficult for many to combine the work of the Council of Elders with the main work. I am afraid that some of the members of the Council of Elders will participate in the meetings just to raise their hands, without reading, without being informed about the issues on the agenda.

I think a lot of knowledgeable women were left out of this local election because they either did not receive offers to join the political forces or simply did not want to run in the local elections as a member of this or that political force. Especially in the communities where one or two parties were nominated, many women simply did not find any common ground and did not want to be included in the list of any political force, so that the attitude towards that force would not spread to them. There were women who ran just to fill the quota. It was because of the female nomination that we had so many female recusals.

The presence of a woman itself changes the atmosphere and Women’s participation in local government management can change a lot. Women are more conscientious, they look at events much more comprehensively, they are more consistent in any issue, men working in the same environment wake up in the presence of women.

It is true that most of the selected women are inexperienced, some are not active, but there are also active ones. Women will gain experience while working, some will become more active and may grow enough in the next five years to run for the next elections more boldly and to be more actively involved in the political process.

Full text in Armenian