Recently I mentioned to a colleague that I participated in a couple of marches in solidarity with fellow humans who were quietly bringing awareness to the deliberate killings and grave breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza. My colleague was unnerved. “You should be careful. You could be identified. It could lead to potential consequences, and besides, we have our own fight for justice, why bother with others,” she said. I was mortified.

Yes, as Armenians, we have suffered and continue to feel the salt on our wounds with the unfinished business of seeking justice for a genocide denied by Turkey and an acknowledgment of endless violations of international humanitarian crimes against Armenians by the Azeri perpetrators, but, does that mean we cannot shoulder the burden of others while seeking our needs?

The atrocities in Gaza present an urgent moral crossroads especially for Armenians who have suffered genocide without retribution and who claim every year to commemorate our loss of 1.5 million Armenians with the mantra of “Genocide, Never Again.” How can we remain silent and not speak up as we bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza? Is our outcry of “Genocide Never Again” solely for our own appeasement? And why must we stop there? Why not continue to raise our voices in allegiance with people who suffer the same irreversible consequences of inhumanity whether in our communities or elsewhere?  Show our faces for all those who are being mercilessly desecrated of human life and dignity. Put aside tribalism and act in defense of our common humanity. Is the aggression that has transformed Gaza into a landscape of desolation, with over 60,000 deaths of which 70 percent continue to be women and children and thousands displaced not part of our shared humanity? Do we not identify with the carnage? Did we not feel the reality of our own plight over these recent years with the blockade of humanitarian aid that cut off food, water and medicine for months, inducing starvation, dehydration, and disease? We said the world is watching. We took to the ICC our documentation of genocide patterns perpetrated by the Azeris for war crimes and crimes against humanity to awaken the conscience and ensure accountability for perpetrators, albeit without much success. Impunity still prevails. Yet we forge ahead, and rightfully so, vigilant to preserve the aspects of our humanity that truly matter. Imagine how much more valid our advocacy for justice, for universal justice, would be if we did not just tut-tut in empathy but shared our empathy by offering our support, and courageously acknowledging the struggle of others with our presence and our voices.

To be true to ourselves, we cannot have ethical inconsistencies of championing our own plight for justice and recognition while ignoring or even dismissing the struggles of others facing similar injustices. We live in diverse societies where selective empathy (or even selective outrage at the perpetrators) can only lead to social fragmentation and resentment.

My contention is that solidarity is owed to those who suffer inequitable treatment, when they are engaged in a struggle against those who treat them with abhorrent inhumanity. Their struggle is partly my own. It resonates within me and although my allegiance is with “my” people, I am compelled and obliged to belong, to defend and represent the tens of thousands of victims of this iniquitous war. I believe in giving those victims my voice and standing alongside them, on their terms, when they struggle against their oppressors.

As a people who have endured a history of pain due to injustice, discrimination or lack of acknowledgement by oppressors, it is crucial that we Armenians stand with courage, true to ourselves to preserve the aspects of our humanity that truly matter.

Empathy, genuine connection to others, emotional depth, and introspection—they matter. They are the pillars of our humanity that support our collective soul, and it is up to each of us to ensure they do not crumble beneath the weight of our modern world. The onus is on us.

So, to those who, like my dear colleague, wash their hands from taking part in the other man’s plight, I say, “Even if or when you lose, solidarity is owed to others not as a form of charity or generosity, but as a duty, as a basic justness. Lean in to your own humanity.”