After hoards of curious questions on what a Marshrutka attack is, and after denying a dozen guesses on what it might be, we can finally let the word out!

HENQ held its first public action yesterday, on June 7. It seemed like just another Saturday afternoon, only that few people actually knew that on that same afternoon, while they were going about with their weekend affairs, a bunch of motivated youth were planning to attack marshrutkas of their own city.

The essence of the "marshrutka attack" comes from one of the un-deadly sins of man (and by man we mean women as well, not only men :)) – eavesdropping. So, let us ask, when was the last time you saw two people gossiping about, say, our show-business in a marshrutka, while you were overhearing them with an ever-so-innocent expression on your face? Not very long ago, eh? We thought so.

So HENQ decided to turn this sin into something smart – why not organize pre-planned dialogues in marshrutkas on specific subjects, talking a bit louder than usual so that people can hear you, even when pretending not to. You do your job, and you make people think a bit more on what is important for you and themselves.

Sounds fun? It definitely was! The youth gathered were divided into groups of two and were handed pre-written dialogues which touched upon stereotypes like "Yerkire yerkir chi", "Petutyunn a meghavor", "Ba es petutyun a, orenq, kargukanon chka" and others. To give the dialogue more dynamism, one person in the pair was supposed to voice these thoughts (like "Mer lifte eli pchacel a, ba es petutyun a?"), while the other spoke against the person and proved that we are the State and that we are supposed to follow the law.

After getting comfortable with the dialogues, the pairs were debriefed on the "geography" of the attack. Specific bus stops and trajectories were designated for the groups, so that the same marshrutkas (and thus the same passengers) wouldn't be attacked more than once, and for the word to spread as far as possible (and not only to, for example, residents of Arabkir and Komitas).

Throughout the attack, a number of 35 marshrutkas became victim, targeting some 150 people.

After the attack, the youth brigade gathered again where they had started off to share their experiences and thoughts on how to make this method more effective. Notes have been taken, changes are to be made, and new attackers recruited, so future target-to-be marshrutkas, watch out!