At the rate of revolts and wars, in recent years we have been able to express our solidarity with causes and peoples. The Armenians have, in turn, supported the people of Turkey, which in its great diversity struggled against Erdogan’s urban projects and his policies in general. Attentive to the Taksim and Gezi demonstrations, many of us were concerned about the waves of arrests of political opponents and journalists who were intensifying since 2013. Armenians were also in solidarity with the Kurds when they were repressed in Turkey. , especially in Dyarbekir in 2015. Always alongside the Kurds in the streets of France, to denounce each year for 5 years, the unpunished murder in Paris of the three activists of the cause of this people. We also denounced the crimes of Daesh and Islamist groups in Syria from 2011, expressed our compassion when Eastern Christians or Yezidis were oppressed. These few marks of solidarity, even if they could have been even more pronounced and generalized, are the sign of a humanity that honors the Armenians as a whole. It is a duty, as a people who have been battered through the centuries, to stand by the shipwrecked people of our time.

Today, it is the people of Armenia who defend their dignity in the streets of Yerevan. In reality he has been on the road to revolt for a longer time. Since 2008, not a year has passed without a spring, a winter or a summer of intense struggle. The motives of the mobilizations could vary according to the contexts. The people expressed their anger at the totality of the rigged elections, but also because of the increase in the price of electricity decided by Moscow, or to support the Sasna Dzrer (the “Sassun rabid”) or more generally to denounce the widespread corruption that allowed the leaders of Armenia and their friends, to become the richest personalities of the country. But the deep reasons for the revolt that is gaining the country are constant and have increased over time; the desires for equality, freedom and justice.

The people are tired of being exploited by an oligarchy without faith or law, except that of its masters in the Kremlin. Injustices are killing Armenia from the inside. All the riches of the country are sold to multinationals. All resources are plundered by a clan, whose members share power. Soon there will be nothing left to defend the country against a neighbor, Azerbaijan dictator Ilham Aliyev, particularly expansionist. Weary and disgusted, Armenians leave, exile massively to sell their labor power to another country and try to build a better future for their families. What future for Armenia emptied of its inhabitants?

If, as Armenians, we have been able to empathize or even stand in solidarity with the minorities of Turkey and Syria, what would be the symbol of a diaspora who would turn a blind eye to an Armenian people who defend their rights and resists against the political regime that oppresses it?

To show unity, in this case, is to choose a camp. The diaspora will be either for the government or the people. In this context, to opt for silence would be tantamount to siding with the government. Let us always keep in mind that it is the new generations, those who organize themselves in the street to change the regime who will have the task of building the Armenia of tomorrow, do not abandon them.

Yériché Gorizian, researcher at the University of Lyon, member of the Charjoum movemen
Friday, April 20, 2018,
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