Activists talk: Artak Adam

The other participant of our Pride Month online campaign is Artak Adam, who works at ”DiverCity” social-cultural human rights defender NGO as the organization’s development officer.  

From the beginning, Artak needed a space for self-expression and self-realization, but he did not have the opportunity to express himself the way he was. The need for self-expression and self-realization made him get involved in activism. Artak sees activism as enabling or creating opportunities based on the specific needs of people or determined groups.  

As an activist, Artak emphasizes raising awareness about human rights professionally and socially. Artak’s activist values are based on fundamental human rights and freedoms; therefore, speaking about human rights is vital for him. 

Artak’s goal is to create a big platform where many activists can express themselves and realize themselves, just like he was involved in other activist platforms at the beginning of his career. He also wants those platforms to engage the youth or LGBT people in activism, and these platforms should be based on fundamental human freedoms. 

While engaging in human rights activities, Artak emphasizes the exchange of experience: it is not only about sharing personal or work experiences but also about sharing life experiences, awareness and coverage, which he uses many times when working for LGBT people. He believes informing others about life experiences allows them to recognize LGBT people and get acquainted with the queer ideology. 

Artak was repeatedly subjected to violence and discrimination because the public is often not aware of human rights or LGBT people, but this did not break his activist passion, and he continued to inform the public about queer people and queer ideology. One of the biggest challenges for Artak when engaging in activism is that sometimes it is difficult to notify the police and state authorities themselves. Nevertheless, he uses methods to inform law enforcement agencies about the rights of LGBT people as well. 

Every activist achieves success during their activism, despite the constant challenges. Among the achievements of his activism, Artak mentions that many people already know him as an activist and a human rights defender, which allows him to realize that he was able to create opportunities for people, motivating him more and more. 

Artak considers himself a person who brings changes, which is directly related to his being an activist. Activism is a field very close to Artak’s heart, through which he can speak about various issues and create opportunities for people who need them.