A little boy in Armenia has stolen our hearts, capturing the peaceful nature of protests in his country as represented by a photo. Who knows, the photo may have been posed, but artfully so, the boy holding his arms up, wide open, pleased with his work: a blockade of a city street, created with rainbow-colored toy cars.
Very touching photo. The kid is blocking the street with his toy cars. May 2nd, Yerevan. Via Infocom #Yerevanprotests #rejecthhk #armenia pic.twitter.com/pqwSEY1z14
— Mike Minasyants (@MikeMinasyants) May 2, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
He only meant to mimic the adults around him, 96 percent of whom are protesting, according to demonstrator Marina Gasparyan, responding to questions from a CNN interviewer. The cause of the protest? The Armenian parliament refused to elect opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan as new prime minister, after former prime minister Serzh Sargsyan was forced to resign in the wake of mass demonstrations.
Pashinyan faces a second round of parliamentary votes next week. Will the iconic photo of a little boy, using the only thing he has at his dispense, a collection of toy cars, sway the votes in Pashinyan’s favor?
We don’t know. But we do know that this is likely the first time a little boy’s toy cars have played a part in support of democracy!
