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In 2016-18, hydrobiological and hydrochemical studies were carried out on the Hrazdan River, as a result of which its ecological state was assessed, in particular, on the basis of studies of chemical indicators and the number of saprophytic bacteria in different parts of the river, water quality was determined. The main factors influencing the ecosystem of the river are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grigor Archimandrite Skevratsi, a follower of the famous clergyman and theologian Nerses of Lambron, was one of the outstanding public, political and cultural figures of medieval Armenia, who in his literary, cultural, religious, social and pedagogical activities was a worthy disciple of his teacher and carried on the traditions establishedby him. Grigor Skevratsi is a multi-genre author. He wrote in practically every genre of spiritual literature and left a legacy of odes and Church Hymns (sharakan), orations and sermons, exhortations and prayers, interpretations and translations. The current paper presents the prayers of Grigor Skevatsi. His theory of prayer is directly derived from the teaching of the school of Narek Monastery which is evidence of a continuity of tradition. Grigor Skevratsi expressed his views on prayer as the highest moment of spiritual life in a number of works, in the theologicalpoem "Instruction on the true Faith and the Virtuous and Pure Life" ("Khrat" (exhortation) «Բան խրատու վասն ուղիղ հաւատոյ և մաքուր վարուց առաքի-նութեան» («Խրատ»)), sermons, several small and large prayers. Skevratsi's prayers testify to his deep faith and high spiritual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Thus, Armenian studies and Earth science are of great impor-tance in the preservation, development and transmission of written heritage to the next generations. Bibliographic theories, seminars, discussions and exhibitions are organized on the basis of theoretical knowledge and acquired experience. In the era of modern techno-logical developments, Armenian studies and reference bibliographic works are carried out most effectively. In addition to paper card files, electronic card files and repositories are also of great informational importance, which enable a wide range of readers to use the Arme-nian printed cultural heritage without mediation. It should be added that a number of issues of updating and management of bibliographic and information files related to the digitization of files remain cont-roversial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Armenia has traditionally had a solid culture of preserving written heritage. However, in the last few decades, due to various geopolitical circumstances, we have lagged behind the global advancement of digitization, information, and communication technologies in terms of natural language processing for the Armenian language, access to the expanding opportunities of systematising and utilising the collated enormous amount of literature. This paper presents the current global state of natural language processing and the related methodological problems of the field in our country. The process of dataset development and consumption, from the primary stage of text digitising collected in physical databases, libraries, and archives, to the very use of the knowledge and information stored in these texts for various scientific, educational and practical purposes, requires a clear scientific-methodological program introducing not only the importance and perspectives of the field but will also ensure the conditions for its sustainable development, including the processing of written (and spoken) digitized language data and the retrieval and “industrialization” of the information and knowledge contained in the language corpora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the psychological effect of war. By the welding of the explanatory potential of psychoanalysis and anthropology, it argues that victims of armed conflict, particularly if protracted, construct a melancholic response (Yordanova, 2018). Often, people on the move are met with hostility by the host countries or may find themselves in the social periphery. This fosters ambivalence towards the new environment as an expression of vulnerabilities. The paper suggests an intergenerational aspect to the above dynamic, too. Children, exposed to violence, lack the emotional and cognitive maturity to grasp what they have lived through. Yet, overwhelmed with their own feelings of loss, their parents fail to help them deal with the trauma. Thus, children identify with the parents’ complicated grief and the assumption of an idealized pre-war past versus scarce future opportunities. Finally, the paper examines the intersections between individual war trauma, cultural memory and power dynamics in post-conflict societies. Using my field work in Sarajevo (2012, 2018), I argue that war survivors avoid the construction of a consistent war narrative in the first person because they need the state-recognized version of history to be re-written (Yordanova, 2015). The ambiguity of their experience in war, the inadequacy of language to convey horror, and the clash of private memories with the official discourse drive them to alternative forms of expression. Survivors and their children use art, humour, tattoos, scarring, and landscape to explain the war and get connected to each other. In the post-war environment, the narrative of veterans who were most exposed to warfare becomes muted in order not to challenge the political status-quo.

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Current research article is devoted to the exploration of women’s rights protection movement in modern Armenian society. The exploration of the current situation of the women’s rights protection movement in modern Armenian society includes two components. Firstly, through an analysis of documents (the Soviet state’s first codes of different years), the study examines the evolution of the women's rights protection social movement from the Soviet Union. This investigation illustrates how the Soviet Union’s political system had formed and shaped the women’s movement, which also affected the further development of the movement in modern Armenian society. Secondly, this research paper is based on an analysis of 34 in-depth interviews performed in Yerevan city from 2020-2023, with informants engaged in different types of women’s rights protection activism during the last 20 years in Armenian society. Information gathered from interviews allowed us to split the history of the development of the movement into two time-lapses in modern Armenian society. Triangulation of qualitative document analysis and in-depth interviews, equally contributed to the understanding of the main features of the women’s rights protection social movement as a whole social phenomenon in Armenian modern society. One of the key findings of the research is that despite the existence of diverse groups of women’s rights protection activists and just individuals coping with social system gender inequalities, there is difficulties in establishing social movement in modern Armenian society. The most prevailing definitions of social movements assume non-institutionalized collective actions with a clear set of goals. Instead, what currently exists in modern Armenian society is a form of street activism organized by efforts of different institutionalized organizations, where people engage in sporadic protests to raise awareness about gender issues and gender inequality. The paper also sheds light on social obstacles that prevent the initiative from becoming an institutionalized social movement for women’s rights protection in Armenia. The main social-cultural obstacles can be seen as a combination of factors including the absence of a general feminist agenda, lack of structural strain pushing for mobilization and social conservatism, etc.

This paper discusses the role of the societal discourse in the construction of breastfeeding practices. It argues that societal discourse is crucial to the constitution of those practices, and that understanding the underlying circumstances of the breastfeeding situation anywhere in the world requires looking not only at the social reality itself but at the discourse that represents, reflects and constructs it. Proposing Armenia as a study case, the paper outlines the various sources of modern discursive practices around the feeding of children in Armenia, including pre-industrial customs, soviet political ideology, and modern Western values. Doing so, it proposes a new approach to studying breastfeeding practices through the prism of various discursive influences.

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent computing power and storage advancements have meant more data are being collected and stored. Referred to as 'Big data', these data sources offer researchers myriad opportunities to make observations about the social world. These data can be massive, provide insight into whole populations rather than just a sample, and be used to analyse social behaviour in real time. Administrative data, a subcategory under the big data umbrella, also offers researchers abundant opportunities to conduct highly relevant research in many areas, including sociology, social policy, education, health studies and many more. This paper offers reflections on social research during the digital age by examining different forms of data, both 'big' and 'small', and their associated advantages and disadvantages. The paper concludes by suggesting that although big data has some promising elements, it also comes with some limitations and povwill not replace 'traditional' social surveys. And yet, when used in conjunction with social surveys, appropriately and ethically, big data could offer the researchers additional valuable insights.

This paper is a theoretical overview that designs and proposes a novel analytical framework within sociology of conflict for studying the origins of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at group level. This article discusses the theories on horizontal inequalities and sociopsychological infrastructure in intractable conflicts, focusing on the question of the emergence of the Karabakh movement. Building on the synthesis of macro and micro theoretical approaches, the paper reflects upon possible ways of exploring the roots of the conflict by bridging social structure with social agency, and morphological knowledge with individual experience. Thereby, stemming from the central arguments of the examined theories, I construct an epistemological scheme, thus essentially capturing the main findings of this theoretical-methodological overview. The analytical framework brought forward in this paper may potentially serve as a foundation for operational design of a meso-level analysis of the causes of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Reports / Doklady Nacionalnaâ Akademiâ Nauk Armenii is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper discusses the concept of a "shock-responsive social protection system", the main options for shock-responsive social protection: including design tweaks, piggybacking, horizontal and vertical expansions, and alignment. Some key criteria are discussed in terms of evaluating the ability of social protection system to respond to emergencies. Some conclusions are presented as offers in terms of preparing for an effective response to shocks as well.

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Mkrtich Portukalian is one of the most significant figures in the Armenian revolutionary movement, but there is a general lack of knowledge about his activities and work. This applies to the famous journal of "Armenia" published in Marseille from 1885 to 1923 by Portukalian in Armenian. In this paper, the period under research especially entailsthe years 1914, 1918, 1919, 1921, 1922 and 1923. We will try to convey Portukalian's personality by referring to various sources. In the second and third section, we will address the "Armenia" journal by frequently reminding that the revolutionist's personality identifies with his journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on Armenian terrorism during the 1970s and ]980s begins with a cursory discussion of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's assassination campaign against former Ottoman officials, known as Nemesis, during the early 1920s. This paper will attempt a deeper analysis of the links between these two periods of violence and argue that the acquittal ofSoghomon Tehlirian in the assassination of Talaat, primarily afactor of the anti-Turkish and anti-Talaat propaganda in the west and Tehlirian's court testimony, facilitated and sustained a cult of violence within the Armenian diaspora. This cult of violence tragically resurfaced in January 1973 and lasted until the mid-1980s. Although 50 years and three generations removed from the events of 1915, the precedent set by Tehlirian s' acquittal was again used to justify the violence. The tragedy in all of this, however, is that Tehlirian c innocence was attained through means of a fabricated and well-coached defense. A detail that was, and is, still largely left out when Tehlirian's tale is told. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Carter administration came to power at a crucial period when the relations between the East and the West were shifting from relaxation to re-confrontation. Its policy towards Afghanistan was not only restricted by the situation of U.S.-Soviet Union relations but also exerted a direct influence on the maintenance and transformation of this situation, notably the opening of the “New Cold War” between the East and the West. With the evolution of the Carter administration’s policy towards Afghanistan as the main clue, this paper aims to study the formation background, causes of change and development logic of different US policies towards Afghanistan in this period so as to reveal the internal relationship between the change of the U.S. policy towards Afghanistan and the evolution of the Cold War situation, as well as the essence of the U.S. policy.

The purpose of the study is to explore the origin and meaning of the term խալայ - xala, to identify the peculiarities of its application in the Armenian historical milieu, and to define at least approximately the chronological boundaries when the tax was in use in medieval Armenia. Xala became known mostly from epigraphic records of Armenia, where the term is mentioned in the immunity donations, in the instructions and references to the exemption of churches from tax obligations and from taxes, including xala. The paper will address all well-known explanations of the term, along with a comparative analysis with the Georgian historical environment, with the fiscal system of medieval Georgia, and, on the other hand, based on the analysis of source studies and definition of the etymology of the term and the phenomenon, a new definition of the term and answers to the above questions related to xala will be proposed as a hypothesis.

In New Persian (hereafter NP) there are more than two dozen Arabic borrowings, attested in different dictionaries and partly still using today for the concept of "leader" [8], while most of the words for the same concept in Middle Persian (hereafter MP) are of Iranian origin. The present article introduces and examines the lexemes attested in Middle Persian and Arabic with the meaning "leader, leader, commander". The choice of the Middle Persian language is due to the task of showing the features of the public perception of the concept "leader" and its expressions at the linguistic extent in Sassanid Iran, still free from strong Arab influence. On the other hand, the choice of Arabic is due to the fact that it shows the enormous influence that the Arab world had already in the post-Sassanid period on the Iranians' perception of the concept of "leader", and, consequently, the Arabic language itself, in the level of linguistic thought, in the face of Arabic borrowings to denote the concept of "leader" in NP. The Arabic loanwords in NP, used for the concept of "leader", are presented in the authors' previous paper [8], because of which the present examination is limited in the presentation of the denotants of the concept of "leader" only in Sasanian Middle Persian and Arabic.

The study of Oman’s foreign policy attracts scholars because of its unique features. It undoubtedly differs from the foreign policies of other countries in the region. This paper focuses on Oman’s policy in three cases of regional conflicts: the Syrian war, the war in Yemen, and the crisis in Qatar in the context of regional changes and Saudi-Iranian rivalry. Oman pragmatically manoeuvres to mitigate threats emerging from the crises and wars in the countries of the Middle East.

This study is dedicated to the problem of definition of "standing stones" and their types in ancient Armenia. These stones are considered in the professional literature as burial monuments (erected in memory of famous persons or events), boundary stones or road guides, altars, places of judgment or purification. The article focuses on criteria for the definition and typology of Armenian "standing stones", according to their formal and contextual features. The emergence of the perception of "standing stones" can be attributed to the early agricultural societies, although their clear existence is visible between the Bronze and Iron Ages. These monuments still play an important role in the world outlook of local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of tax policy and the tax system is significant in the country's socio-economic development. About 95% of the revenues of the state budget of the Republic of Armenia are provided by tax revenues and state duties, and large taxpayers provide more than 70% of tax revenues. Therefore, from the point of view of the implementation of tax reforms, particular importance is attached to improving the mechanisms for taxing large taxpayers. Based on the analysis of taxes paid by 1000 large taxpayers of the Republic of Armenia for 2016-2021, problems in the sector were identified. In particular, the number of organizations paying taxes of more than 1 billion drams and from 500 million drams to 1 billion drams is increasing from year to year; however, there is no significant change in the amount of tax revenues paid by one organization on average. The small share of direct taxes in tax revenue paid by the top 1,000 taxpayers has been declining in recent years, which means that indirect taxes increase tax volumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To discover the geopolitical orientation and opinions of the Armenia’s youth regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine in the context of regional security issues, a sociological study was conducted in Yerevan and Armenia’s provinces in 2022. It was carried out by specialists from the Faculty of Sociology of the Yerevan State University, in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation office in Armenia, and Socies expert center. The study aimed to discover the youth’s perceptions of the reasons for Russia’s war in Ukraine, which started on February 24, 2022, including its possible impact on the region. The research was carried out from October 22, 2022 to November 22, 2022 with youth (18-35 age group) residing in Yerevan (the capital of Armenia) and all provinces of Armenia, using the focus group discussion method. In this paper, we discuss conclusions drawn from focus group discussions with Yerevan residents. The perceptions of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict by Armenia’s youth refers to its geopolitical nature, to the interests of Russia, NATO, EU, USA, Turkey in the post-Soviet space, as well as to personal qualities, approaches, and issues of the leaders of Russia and Ukraine. In general, according to Armenian young people, Armenia should remain as neutral as possible in its position on the war in Ukraine, taking no side in this conflict.

This paper intends to evaluate some elements that make up the worldview of contemporary China. To do this, these factors are dealt with (among others): the positioning that China assumes and wants to assume on the planet, and the ensemble of geopolitical theories that derive from it; and the conception of politics with respect to centralization / decentralization issues. In addition to this, the role of the economic (and geoeconomic) vision of contemporary China is also highlighted, in particular in relation to the thoughts of Xi Jinping expressed in 2017 at the Davos Forum. It becomes important to understand, in this sense, the idea of globalization and multipolarity that China extends, as a guiding principle, to its foreign policy. This is because it is based on cultural roots of distant ancestry. Through these interrelated interpretative levels, it is possible to understand the function that China plays within the contemporary world and its contribution of ideas and visions.

Enclitic pronouns are used in most of New West Iranian languages. They are mainly used for marking the possessor, as well as objects, besides, those Iranian languages and dialects, which show ergative patterns, make use of enclitic pronouns for marking the agent in erga-tive constructions. This paper deals with the enclitic pronouns and their functions in Anbarāni, one of the Northern Talyshi dialects, spoken in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Where it is possible the features of Anbarāni enclitics will be compared with some other West Iranian languages.

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Talyshi, classified as belonging to the Northwestern Iranian group of languages, includes a wide range of dialects, which, based on phonological, grammatical and lexical factors, are traditionally divided into three main clusters: Northern, Central and Southern (see Bazin 1980; Stilo 1981; Yarshater 1996). Anbarāni is a Northern Talyshi dialect spoken in Anbarān district (baxš) of Namin sub-provincial district (šahrestān) (Ardabil province) of Iran, in the city of Anbarān and adjacent villages. Relatively a large number of studies deal with the Northern Talyshi dialects spoken in the Republic of Azerbaijan. For example, “The Talyshi Texts” by Professor of Iranian Studies Boris Miller, includes short stories, anecdotes, conversations, poetic verses (see Miller 1930) written down in these dialects. Unlike the Northern Talyshi dialects spoken in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Anbarāni dialect is little known and less studied therefore the number of texts, published in this dialect, is quite limited. The aim of this paper is to broaden the scope of knowledge on Anbarāni by introducing a short story of Mullah Nasreddin and analyzing a number of morphological, syntactical and lexical dialectal features based on the text.

Contemporary gender norms and attitudes in Armenia have been shaped by a complex interplay of pre-Soviet traditional culture, the legacy of the Soviet socialist modernization project, and the post-Soviet spread of western ideas and values. The paper examines generational differences in gender norms and attitudes in Armenian society, by comparing three generational groups. The mixed-method analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data, including the nationally-representative household-based Gender Barometer Survey conducted in 2014, as well as in-depth interviews and focus group discussions among members of different generational groups in Armenia during 2015-2020. The results of the factor analysis show considerable generational complexity in gender norms and attitudes. We find that the majority of Armenian society, regardless of gender and generation, strongly adheres to the core family values and the corresponding gendered family roles. At the same time, the analyses show that individuals who belong to the older generation, i.e., the generation whose socialization took place under Soviet rule, display the most conservative patriarchal gender attitudes. The middle generation, whose coming of age occurred during the period of the early radical post-Soviet transformation, demonstrate inconsistent gender attitudes: while adhering to conservative gender norms, they are also most dissatisfied with the state of gender equality and in some aspects, such as achievement of status and wealth, display considerable gender egalitarianism. Finally, the youngest generation generally subscribes to the most egalitarian attitudes, but this group is far from homogenous, demonstrating a sharp divide between urban dwellers, who are very egalitarian-minded, and rural ones, who are remarkably conservative. Notably, young women living in cities display by far the most egalitarian attitudes. Moreover, among men, the generation is not a significant predictor of the level of egalitarianism in gender attitudes, compared to education and area of residence (city/village). However, it has a more significant impact on women’s perception of the traditional gender scheme. We conclude with a discussion of the role of changes in gender norms and attitudes in a broader transformation of Armenian society.

There are a great number of Armenian compound personal names with the element šah ‘king’ of Iranian origin (Middle Persian and New Persian šāh ‘king’). It occurs: (1) in both masculine and feminine names; (2) with both native Armenian and foreign components; (3) either as the first or the second component; (4) often in doublet forms with a reversed order of the components. For instance: masculine Šah-amir and Amir-šah, Šah-paron and Paron-šah, Vahram-šah; feminine: Šah-xat‘un and Xat‘un-šah, Šah-tikin. Also note masc. Šah-aziz vs. fem. Aziz-šah, masc․ Sult‘an-šah vs. fem. Šah-sult‘an, masc. Melik‘-šah vs. fem. Šah-melē/ik‘ (the latter is sometimes masculine, cf. Middle Persian > Syriac Šāh-malīk, also masculine ). This paper aims to interpret two hapax legomena in which the component šah became synchronically unanalyzable due to phonological changes. In one of them, šah is the second member of the name (gen. Artamšin < *Artam-šah/y-in), whereas in the other it is the first one (Šaštʻi < *Šah-stʻi ‘Šah-Lady’).

The socio-economic, political, and even cultural consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are more than obvious. They affect the whole world and are relevant in all spheres and levels of social and public life. Numerous anti-pandemic measures, mainly the closure of borders, restrictions on the movement of citizens, and isolation hit the businesses and economies of different volumes and intensities. The spheres of tourism and services are special here and the ones where the organization of activities is based on the circulation of people and face-to-face interactions. The effective functioning of a number of social institutions was disrupted. Negative consequences were also relevant in the case of various migration flows. Having been actively involved in the migration for many years, the Armenian society is not immune to the effects of Covid-19. Based on the available literature, articles, reports, various publications and rich statistical data, the article presents in detail the impact of the pandemic on Armenian migration processes. The paper introduces the migration context of Armenia, the effects of the pandemic on the activities of a number of migrants and related groups. Conflicts of adapting to and overcoming the crisis, formal and informal tactics, approaches and practices are analyzed.

The paper is a theoretical review of “social movement” term definitions. Aiming to show differences among definitions within different paradigms and scientific evolution of the term the main approaches of defining social movements are discussed. Initially, social movements were studied by psychologists, who were examining different forms of collective behavior, such as mobs, crowds, protests and etc. Most of them considered social movements as an irrational and destructive form of collective action driven by the instincts of people. During the next decades, the theory of social movements was developed mostly by sociologists who, on the contrary, started to seek social reasons inducing this type of collective action. Different theoretical schools proposed various concepts of explaining the origin of social movements, but all of them agreed on the main characteristics: rational and organized collective action driven by unfulfilled social needs. Different authors linked social movement definitions with other important social phenomena such as norms and values, social conflict, social identity, and social network. Political scientists have also contributed to the study of social movements but in terms of power and state, terrorism and violence. Discussing psychological, sociological, and political science approaches to term definition we came to the conclusion that the most inclusive sociological definition is viewing social movement as a social network through which collective action is performed to achieve total or partial social change. Such kind of definition makes it possible to reveal the main criteria necessary to distinguish social movement as a separate social phenomenon from other types of collective action.

Copyright of Ajastan Kensabanakan Handes is the property of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)