BOSTON — On the frigid afternoon of November 18, 2023, Zoravik Activist Collective concluded its protest series in support of Artsakh by hosting a Rally to Demand US Action for Artsakh in front of the JFK Federal Building in Boston. In solidarity with 14 organizations in the greater Boston community, the rally’s 16 speakers shed light on the ethnic cleansing of over 100,000 Armenians from Artsakh by Azerbaijan in September 2023 after a 44-day war in 2020 and a brutal nine-month blockade in 2023 that deprived the population of food, medical supplies, and fuel.
Activist singer-songwriters Sami Martasian (of Puppy Problems) and Chris Kazarian performed before and during the rally. Martasian’s songs about gentrification and Kazarian’s song titled When Will We Get to Live? were musical explorations of inequality and injustice that echoed the themes of the rally mentioned by many of its speakers.
The speakers at the rally expressed outrage over the international community’s failure to protect Armenians in Artsakh, demanded that the US cut military and other aid to Azerbaijan, highlighted the urgent need for humanitarian assistance for forcibly displaced Armenians of Artsakh, urged American lawmakers to support Armenian democracy and sovereignty, noted the strength of aligning with other oppressed populations, and encouraged the community to do more together.
The organizers had compiled a list of statements, trusted news articles, videos, and other links about Artsakh into the following website: www.ArtsakhSOS.com, and this online resource was disseminated to passers-by via postcards and through QR codes on protest signs.
Several speakers noted their outrage about the international community’s failure to protect Armenians in Artsakh from Azerbaijani aggression. Reading Zoravik’s prepared statement, Dr. Lisa Gulesserian listed numerous times when different state actors and international human rights organizations failed to prevent the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh. Referencing a long history of willful neglect by international powers to prevent violence against Armenians, Dr. Henry Theriault on behalf of Genocide Studies International asserted: “Many scholars of genocide, whether they have any kind of focus on the Armenian case or not, are recognizing that what is happening now [in Armenia and Artsakh] is not only part of the genocidal process that started in the 1890s with the goal of eliminating Armenians from the entire Caucasus and Western Armenian regions, but it is also, just what has happened now, also, is either already genocide, or on the verge of becoming genocide, according to the UN Convention and other applicable international law.”
Rally speakers also noted that international inaction was not the only contributing factor — the United States government provided military and other aid to Azerbaijan that enabled its aggression against Armenians, and this aid must be stopped immediately. As Gulesserian of Zoravik explained, “The United States actively built the military of Azerbaijan over decades with hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid. The US thus had a direct role in helping Azerbaijan reach its genocidal goals.” Judy Norsigian of Our Bodies Ourselves highlighted the connection between the US and Israel that allowed Israel to sell Azerbaijan weapons that were used to terrorize and kill Armenians: “it’s really important that we also ask our legislators to do what they can to apply pressure upon Netanyahu not to provide such weapons to Azerbaijan as it now seeks to take over southern parts of Armenia proper. They will not stop, they will continue to do whatever they can. And our job is to hold our legislators’ feet to the fire as best we can.”