We recently connected with Armenian Organized Resistance Coalition and have shared our conversation below.
Armenian Organized Resistance Coalition, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Our mission is to fight for the liberation of all Armenians while building intersectional solidarity with all victims of our oppressors, to elevate our cultures and shared struggles and expose the networks and tactics of our shared enemies. We aim to take advantage of our positions in the diaspora by pressuring empowered political decision-makers who fail to represent our interests, and establishing a radical leftist Armenian presence in the streets that’s inclusive of all our allies.
We hope our mission can facilitate peace, understanding, and lasting solidarity with non-Armenians and Armenians who are marginalized for their race, gender, or sexuality. We hope it can provide healing from our history of genocide and violent dispossession from our homes. We continue to lose our lands and lives without justice, and rightfully grow more nihilistic and insular as a people. Our generational trauma compounds through stories of surviving atrocities and repeating cycles of genocide by Turkey and Azerbaijan, who still deny their crimes, still occupy ancestral Armenian lands, still destroy Armenian heritage – while the world still enables them as partners, and emboldens them to fuel genocide in Gaza and escalating violent domestic suppression of dissent, activism, and political opposition. The US acknowledged that Turkey committed Armenian genocide after 100 years had passed, and then proceeded to repeatedly veto laws that would have prohibited funding the next one. The EU wanted to sanction Azerbaijan for its war crimes against Armenians, and then bought 10 years worth of fossil fuels from Azerbaijan. The UN accepted money from Azerbaijan to whitewash the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, and then allowed them to host COP29 and actually profit from their war crimes and other violations of international law. We hope we can hold these complicit entities accountable for their roles and prevent these crimes from ever repeating again.
Armenian Organized Resistance Coalition, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We found each other looking for justice and like-minded Armenians with whom we could collaborate in the aftermath of the forced displacement of Indigenous Armenians from Artsakh. A couple of the mainstream Armenian cultural orgs hosted a rally at an Armenian church, as is typical, but we found ourselves unsatisfied. We couldn’t march in the streets or confront any of the responsible parties. So some of us started meeting about what we could do together outside of the traditional systems of achieving justice that have always failed us, and started attending small protests at the UN to find more allies and begin to express ourselves in this language of grassroots activism – much of which we were figuring out as we were going along, relying on our past experiences supporting other causes.
After October 7, when the Zionist entity made its genocidal intent against the Gaza Palestinians clear to the world, we felt the same pain, and the same need to fight blatant injustice. It became imperative to show our support as a people for Palestinians, whose struggles are interconnected with ours historically and materially, since the Zionist entity is longtime allies with our genocider Azerbaijan, and supplies Azerbaijan with the illegal weapons used to destroy Armenians and our land all while Azerbaijan supplies “Israel” with all of the oil from the region. Our liberation is inextricably tied together. When the mainstream Armenian organizations stayed silent, we stepped up and planned an Armenians for Palestine rally where we were able to establish the foundations for a coalition uniting Armenians with intersectional activists, fighting the same interconnected genocidal, oppressive systems.
Now, we connect Armenians to tools of intersectional grassroots activism. We are proud to show up as a people and establish cross-cultural solidarity, focusing on bridge-building rather than enforcing Armenian nationalism. Diasporan Armenian cultural organizations often lean right politically, and along with Armenian society, lack inclusive definitions of Armenian identity. Their actions are centered around strengthening the Armenian state through sending resources, going to court, and lobbying for political support. We exist for those of us who don’t fit traditional expectations enforced by these organizations, and who feel compelled to take action outside of the traditional systems of justice.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
As Armenians, our journey is deeply rooted in the mission to amplify the voices and struggles of our people, which have long been silenced or distorted by bought global narratives. This isn’t the 1915 genocide perpetrated by Turkey, which the US only just acknowledged and Turkey denies to this day. It’s also not about Artsakh, which Azerbaijan now exploits on a global scale for investments in “green energy” development. This is an active, ongoing effort to rewrite history in order to justify genocidal settler-colonialism and solidify a pan-Turkic ruling regime in the region. For decades, Turkey and Azerbaijan have been destroying and re-appropriating traces of Armenian heritage on ancestral land they’ve violently seized, while investing millions in lobbying, bribery, and misinformation campaigns to fabricate state history and propaganda.
When Azerbaijan launched their full military assault on Artsakh that ultimately displaced over 100,000 Indigenous Armenians, it was after enacting a blockade of the Lachin corridor that connected Artsakh to Armenia proper, and thus all basic resources. For nearly nine months, Artsakh Armenians were starved, without access to fuel, internet, medical care, or humanitarian aid. In this time, journalists and international observers were blocked from entering the region and gathering testimony. The only organization that actively tried to intervene was the Red Cross, which reported numerous obstacles by Azerbaijan and human rights violations, such as Azerbaijani forces abducting sick Armenians who were being transported for medical care.
Ruling bodies like the UN, European Parliament, Mayor Eric Adams of NYC, and Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas, have all been implicated in taking bribes from Azerbaijan and Turkey to push the Turkish nationalist agenda in international politics. Turkey paid Eric Adams to help deny the Armenian genocide by neglecting to attend or acknowledge its annual commemoration in NYC. The UN received $1M from Azerbaijan just before their investigation of claims of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh – after Armenians were already forced from the region.
Constantly gaslit or ignored by the international community, our collective is driven to expose these blatant injustices. We shed light on the truth, share Armenian history, the tools of our oppressors, and the resilience in our fight for justice. This mission is not just a response to oppression, but an expression of our resistance, solidarity, and storytelling, for the survival of our homeland and identity around the world.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an activist in times of overwhelming conflict and adversity is creating hope and authentic connection. Armenian diasporans are spread around the world, so it can feel overwhelming and exhausting to begin confronting our struggles without community support, and it’s easy to feel powerless knowing we have never once gotten justice, and continue to be subjected to the enormous advantages and successes of our enemies. Finding spaces where like-minded individuals can come together to share cultures, experiences, and feelings, helps restore that energy, form alliances, and remind us of our role in broader resistance efforts as one of many groups demanding justice, pushing the world towards a better future together.
Activism is difficult, frustrating, and almost never tangibly rewarding. We sustain ourselves with small victories, like seeing hope become visible in someone’s eyes, or excitement from Armenians when they see us at protests, relieved we exist at all. When the media finally amplifies our cause, or when we can introduce our culture to allies who support us, but don’t yet actually know us. The connections created with this global network of activists provides a sense of unparalleled solidarity to know there are people who care about the same issues, and work on them alongside, even from afar.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/armorcoalition
- Instagram: @armorcoalition
- Youtube: @ARMOR-coalition
Image Credits
Colleen Stepanian
Ricky Gonzalez