The Green Void: Post-Soviet Institutional Fragility and the Framing of Environmental Expertise in Armenia

Author: Levon Nurijanyan

Abstract:

This paper examines the controversy surrounding the Amulsar gold mine in Armenia to explore how environmental issues are framed in a context marked by institutional fragility and contested expertise. Using qualitative frame analysis of 94 media and civil society texts, as well as five semi-structured interviews, the study investigates how different actors - state officials, corporate representatives, activists, and civil society organisations (CSOs) - construct competing narratives around environmental risk, legitimacy, and development. The findings reveal that while government and corporate actors frame Amulsar as a symbol of national progress and economic necessity, activists highlight environmental harm, procedural injustice, and elite collusion. Both sides selectively invoke international expertise, exposing a broader “expertise void” in post-Soviet Armenia, where domestic epistemic authority is weak and foreign assessments are politicised. The study contributes to environmental governance and post-Soviet transition literature by demonstrating how knowledge itself becomes a strategic tool in democratic struggles over environmental legitimacy. 

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