Zoravik: In Solidarity with Asylum Seekers

Original illustration by Alik Arzoumanian

Zoravik stands in solidarity with the refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers currently being targeted by the Trump administration. As a community of refugees and descendants of refugees, we condemn all forms of identity-based persecution and racism.  

No child should ever be separated from their parents, guardians or family. We are sickened by the abusive and unsanitary conditions that children and adults are being subjected to in so-called detention centers across the southern border. Furthermore, we condemn the use of raids to their homes and places of work and worship.  

As a people who have experienced the trauma of displacement and the need to seek asylum, we as Armenians condemn the escalating terror and dehumanizing treatment of Latin American migrants at the hands of CBP and ICE agents. We know the impact of deportations. We know from our own history the emotional harm and the devastation inflicted upon children who are forcefully and violently separated from their families. We know that state violence on such a scale causes psychological trauma that is passed on for generations to come.  

As a collective dedicated to fighting for justice for all peoples, we condemn the President and his administration for their virulently racist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic policies. We condemn all those who continue to terrorize and perpetrate violence at the border and across the country in their name. We call for ICE to be abolished, for the camps to be closed and for all children to be reunited with their families. We call on Congress to make meaningful immigration reform a priority. 

We ask all Armenians to reflect on our own traumatic history, and urge you, and your church or organizations, to take action now to help those who are fleeing oppression and seeking refuge and a safe haven in this country. 

As an Armenian collective, we say: 

No more raids! No more deportations! Close the camps and abolish ICE now! 

In Solidarity,
Զօրավիգ
Zoravik – Armenian Activist Collective

The following resources provide information on how to protect and support immigrants and refugees in your community and at the border:

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Action Coalition (MIRA)
National Immigration Law Center
No More Deaths
Annunciation House
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP)
Action for Immigrant Lives

Zoravik Activist Collective

Zoravik Activist Collective

Zoravik (“in solidarity”) is an Armenian activist collective that promotes new avenues for activism.
Zoravik Activist Collective

7 Comments

  1. As each day’s news cycle reveals the abuse and numbers of deportations of Latin American children and their families across the United States, it is heartening to see that an Armenian group has issued a statement of solidarity with the asylum seekers. Let’s hope that other Armenian organizations, activist groups and religious institutions will add their voices to this growing chorus of condemnation.

    As descendants of immigrants and refugees ourselves, we as Armenians have a moral obligation to speak out and condemn the human rights violations taking place at the Southern border and within the US.

  2. This statement explains clearly what the stakes are and why – as humans, as Armenians – we should care. Kudos to the authors for taking the time to write this. I encourage everyone to share widely.

  3. Armenians ahould be proud for taking such non-compromising position on the protection of refugees from further harm as they have suffered enough through their hundreds of miles journey. The human society can not be indifferent to the plight of refugees, who seek safer environment for their families by coming to our shores.

  4. I’m totally against these fake asylum seekers. Armenians were actually in trouble and are good people who can contribute while these frauds only make real refugees look bad with their parasitism. Forget all of you whiners…Armenians should stand in solidarity with those who want to preserve the nation state and the republic. Otherwise, there won’t be a country nor a single bit of freedom left in this world. You are really dumb for believing the media as well. Same people who sold weapons to Azerbaijan t0 have us killed.

  5. Please stop! You don’t speak for all Armenians. You cannot compare the Armenians of 1915 to these people taking advantage of our inept immigration rules. Most are not seeking asylum but the economic advantages of the USA — I don’t blame them, but it must be done in an orderly manner. As it is we take in one million immigrants who apply legally. Open the borders to anyone and this country will be impoverished in no time flat. They can seek a safer environment in Mexico but no, they want to dangerously drag their kids and cross the US border and go on welfare. Stand in line like our parents and countless other ethnicities did and apply LEGALLY. Look what has happened in Greece, France, Germany, and Switzerland —complete disruption of legal order and civilized society as it was known. Stop with the progressive agenda and stop calling everyone you disagree with a racist. I do however support your call for Congress to immediately reform our immigration laws. Probably something that hasn’t happened in 39 years and given the political climate today, will sadly still not happen.

  6. This article is complete nonsense. It is pretty silly for anyone of any political orientation to claim that they speak for all Armenians.

  7. Thanks for spitting in my face as an actual former Armenian refugee from Baku. Yes former, I am not longer seeking refuge. I am doing great in the US. Spent two years in Armenia, in a basement before I finally got to come to the US LEGALLY. I didn’t have a home, not in Azerbaijan, not in Armenia, not in Russia. The only country that gave me a home was the USA. US has been open to refugees for years, we accept the largest amount of people out of any country in the world. So please don’t spit in the faces of the ones that came here legally for real reasons like pogroms and genocide.

    Now about this crap about the border: Asylum from what? Economy? Gangs? We have all that in the US, we aren’t jumping the border to Canada. These are not refugees, they are just using American crappy immigration laws to come here and make money and send it back to wherever. Its not in the hopes of living an American dream but using the system to abuse it. Its to run it dry and then drive up the costs of welfare as well.

    I worked with many and their only hope is to make money, send it down south of the border. Make enough cash, rape the system and then get out. They aren’t here to assimilate into the culture like most LEGAL immigrants/refugees. These people do not want this culture but its money. So I’m voting Trump again and again. No one is annihilating them, no one is running death camps or death marches. They choose to break the law. Just like if I broke the law and my children were in my custody, they would be taken away from me. However Democrats came up with the idea that it be good to keep them together vs separate them from their parents, then the kids get locked up as well. Who’s idea was that? Oh yeah Clinton, the same guy that stopped Armenian Refugees from coming from Armenia.

    When did we Armenians become leftists that want to lose the only identity we have? We lost our country to the Turks, We lost it to the Russians, we finally get it back and now we support the same practices that annihilate the identities that we all have. I’m American first, sorry if that pops your bubbles, but I didn’t have a country that wanted me until US gave me a home. Don’t take it the wrong way, I’m not blaming Armenia, however Armenia didn’t want me, it couldn’t handle us. Just like the US cant handle the entire population of the countries south of the border. I don’t see Germany with open borders anymore, they figured out fast, you keep it open and then it will wreck you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*