Tweet
Ceasefire 20: Information war rages on despite two decades of truce
CEASEFIRE 20 | 17.05.14 | 07:53
http://www.armenianow.com/karabakh/ceasefire_20/54301/armenia_ceasefire_20_information_war
Angela Elibegova
By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
During the Karabakh war and the following 20 years of ceasefire
information war has been a constant 'companion' of the conflict.
Angela Elibegova, a specialist in Azerbaijani studies based in
Yerevan, says as the winning side in the war Armenia didn't pay much
attention to the informational confrontation for a long time, however
when Azerbaijan started intensively distorting various facts about the
conflict and the war and spreading them Armenia began developing a
wide range of response mechanisms on an official level.
Enlarge Photo
Karen Vrtanesyan
Since 2009 a big group of multi-profile specialists started working in
Armenia. They managed to coordinate the information about the conflict
and Karabakh and present them through books, websites and scientific
works.
"For instance, the xocali.net project collected all the photographs
that the Azerbaijani side was using in various brochures, posters and
found out that they have no relation to the Khojalu events. Thus,
Azerbaijan started not using photographs in their brochures and
posters at all. Besides, the karabakhrecords.info portal was launched.
It contains comprehensive information about the 1987-1992 events in
Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh and some other programs as well," the
expert says.
Expert in information affairs Karen Vrtanesyan says there has been
informational persistence from the very first days of the conflict and
even before that, during the Soviet years mainly expressed through
scientific articles. During the recent years internet hacking attacks
have become a major part of informational confrontation, which takes
place on some significant days in the history of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
"After the war the Armenian side started dealing with its internal
problems and the Azerbaijani side started getting active. The more
they recovered the more active they acted in the informational sphere.
Thus, the farther we departed from the war the more intensive
Azerbaijani campaigning grew. If we follow the rhetoric there is an
impression that the active war hasn't ended yet," Vrtanesyan notices.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in his public speeches often uses
military rhetoric - he usually says that sooner or later Karabakh is
going to be returned to Azerbaijan, he also likes to mention the
indexes of emigration of Armenia emphasizing that Azerbaijan is
superior to Armenia both by population and by natural resources, thus
they can easily win Armenia. Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group dealing
with the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict in all their
announcements encourage not to use war rhetoric, emphasizing that it
creates additional tensions. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is
normally more reserved in his statements and more often from
international stages he points at the fact that Aliyev uses bellicose
rhetoric, saying that the Azeri leader openly preaches hatred and
animosity.
In February at the meeting of the Yerkrapah Volunteers' Union
President Sargsyan turned to Azerbaijan with a detailed speech. He
spoke about borderline incidents, about civilian and military victims
as a result of ceasefire violations, saying that "this is murder and
Azerbaijani campaign introduces this to their nation as a fight for
Karabakh."
"These murders follow another purpose as well - to regularly intensify
the situation and preserve the fire of hatred bright towards all
Armenians. Anti-Armenianism is the key idea around which they want to
gather the new Azerbaijani nation and around which they want to form
the so-called 'national ideology'. Hatred towards Armenians is turned
into a synonym of patriotism," Sargsyan said.
Armenian experts think that Aliyev's military rhetoric is very
effective especially for the internal audience.
"I normally call it a war-time campaigning. First of all, one of the
purposes of their campaign is to hold their nation mobilized, directed
towards Armenians and Armenia. Every problem in Azerbaijan is
explained by Armenians, even in internal struggles when they want to
get rid of somebody they say that the person's mother or father is an
Armenian. The other purpose is to shift the attention from national
problems to exterior enemy - Armenians," says Karen Vrtanesyan.
Elibegova also stresses that Aliyev's military rhetoric is very
effective for the internal audience. "They have taught their
electorate to believe in everything, whatever comes from above, from
the TV and never to analyze it. For 20 years they have been saying
that soon they will liberate Karabakh, and all these 20 years they've
believed in it. But, for instance, the younger generation who have
never met an Armenian or know anything about Karabakh are quite
indifferent to the question," says the specialist who closely follows
the Azerbaijani media.
Experts consider that a serious problem in the informational war
between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the fact that Armenian media often
reproduce Azerbaijani false information without checking the facts,
without trying to receive more valid information from a third source.
However, both Elibegova and Vrtanesyan say that this trend was more
widespread a few years ago, nowadays Armenian media are more careful.
"Our informational field is very diverse, there are media of various
political directions, there are media that for promotional purposes
bring more harm to Armenia than Azerbaijan itself. Azerbaijani media
very often use Armenian politicians' statements which are supposedly
directed towards the internal audience but come very handy for the
Azerbaijani side. Particularly, Azerbaijan works very hard on the
thesis of devaluating Armenia's victory in the war. One of such thesis
is that Russia fought for us, but for Russia, Azerbaijan would have
won, and this thesis was recently heard in Armenian media as well,"
says Vrtanesyan.
Vrtanesyan also notices that unlike Armenian media there is tense
vertical supervision over Azerbaijani media. "The whole informational
field is meticulously controlled, and all of it is done in a very
coordinated manner, there is an impression that in the morning they
receive a paper that has all they need to say and with a slight change
the same campaigning thesis is being circulated."
"In Azerbaijan you can clearly see the hierarchy, how orders come from
above, how they get spread, what happens to journalists who don't
agree with the rules of the game, like Rauf Mirkadirov (he was
arrested on charges of spying for Armenia), Khadija Ismayilova (she
was repeatedly blackmailed, spied on and a video on her personal life
was found in the net). The rules of the game are very clear - either
you are with the system or you are destroyed," Elibegova says.
According to Freedom House's latest report, both Armenia and
Azerbaijan remain among countries with 'not free press'. According to
the 2014 report, Azerbaijani indexes appear very negative as the
country is said to be going in a wrong direction. It is mostly about
silencing independent opinions, among which the voices that are heard
in the internet. Armenia is in a little better situation."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
CEASEFIRE 20 | 17.05.14 | 07:53
http://www.armenianow.com/karabakh/ceasefire_20/54301/armenia_ceasefire_20_information_war
Angela Elibegova
By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
During the Karabakh war and the following 20 years of ceasefire
information war has been a constant 'companion' of the conflict.
Angela Elibegova, a specialist in Azerbaijani studies based in
Yerevan, says as the winning side in the war Armenia didn't pay much
attention to the informational confrontation for a long time, however
when Azerbaijan started intensively distorting various facts about the
conflict and the war and spreading them Armenia began developing a
wide range of response mechanisms on an official level.
Enlarge Photo
Karen Vrtanesyan
Since 2009 a big group of multi-profile specialists started working in
Armenia. They managed to coordinate the information about the conflict
and Karabakh and present them through books, websites and scientific
works.
"For instance, the xocali.net project collected all the photographs
that the Azerbaijani side was using in various brochures, posters and
found out that they have no relation to the Khojalu events. Thus,
Azerbaijan started not using photographs in their brochures and
posters at all. Besides, the karabakhrecords.info portal was launched.
It contains comprehensive information about the 1987-1992 events in
Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh and some other programs as well," the
expert says.
Expert in information affairs Karen Vrtanesyan says there has been
informational persistence from the very first days of the conflict and
even before that, during the Soviet years mainly expressed through
scientific articles. During the recent years internet hacking attacks
have become a major part of informational confrontation, which takes
place on some significant days in the history of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
"After the war the Armenian side started dealing with its internal
problems and the Azerbaijani side started getting active. The more
they recovered the more active they acted in the informational sphere.
Thus, the farther we departed from the war the more intensive
Azerbaijani campaigning grew. If we follow the rhetoric there is an
impression that the active war hasn't ended yet," Vrtanesyan notices.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in his public speeches often uses
military rhetoric - he usually says that sooner or later Karabakh is
going to be returned to Azerbaijan, he also likes to mention the
indexes of emigration of Armenia emphasizing that Azerbaijan is
superior to Armenia both by population and by natural resources, thus
they can easily win Armenia. Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group dealing
with the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict in all their
announcements encourage not to use war rhetoric, emphasizing that it
creates additional tensions. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is
normally more reserved in his statements and more often from
international stages he points at the fact that Aliyev uses bellicose
rhetoric, saying that the Azeri leader openly preaches hatred and
animosity.
In February at the meeting of the Yerkrapah Volunteers' Union
President Sargsyan turned to Azerbaijan with a detailed speech. He
spoke about borderline incidents, about civilian and military victims
as a result of ceasefire violations, saying that "this is murder and
Azerbaijani campaign introduces this to their nation as a fight for
Karabakh."
"These murders follow another purpose as well - to regularly intensify
the situation and preserve the fire of hatred bright towards all
Armenians. Anti-Armenianism is the key idea around which they want to
gather the new Azerbaijani nation and around which they want to form
the so-called 'national ideology'. Hatred towards Armenians is turned
into a synonym of patriotism," Sargsyan said.
Armenian experts think that Aliyev's military rhetoric is very
effective especially for the internal audience.
"I normally call it a war-time campaigning. First of all, one of the
purposes of their campaign is to hold their nation mobilized, directed
towards Armenians and Armenia. Every problem in Azerbaijan is
explained by Armenians, even in internal struggles when they want to
get rid of somebody they say that the person's mother or father is an
Armenian. The other purpose is to shift the attention from national
problems to exterior enemy - Armenians," says Karen Vrtanesyan.
Elibegova also stresses that Aliyev's military rhetoric is very
effective for the internal audience. "They have taught their
electorate to believe in everything, whatever comes from above, from
the TV and never to analyze it. For 20 years they have been saying
that soon they will liberate Karabakh, and all these 20 years they've
believed in it. But, for instance, the younger generation who have
never met an Armenian or know anything about Karabakh are quite
indifferent to the question," says the specialist who closely follows
the Azerbaijani media.
Experts consider that a serious problem in the informational war
between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the fact that Armenian media often
reproduce Azerbaijani false information without checking the facts,
without trying to receive more valid information from a third source.
However, both Elibegova and Vrtanesyan say that this trend was more
widespread a few years ago, nowadays Armenian media are more careful.
"Our informational field is very diverse, there are media of various
political directions, there are media that for promotional purposes
bring more harm to Armenia than Azerbaijan itself. Azerbaijani media
very often use Armenian politicians' statements which are supposedly
directed towards the internal audience but come very handy for the
Azerbaijani side. Particularly, Azerbaijan works very hard on the
thesis of devaluating Armenia's victory in the war. One of such thesis
is that Russia fought for us, but for Russia, Azerbaijan would have
won, and this thesis was recently heard in Armenian media as well,"
says Vrtanesyan.
Vrtanesyan also notices that unlike Armenian media there is tense
vertical supervision over Azerbaijani media. "The whole informational
field is meticulously controlled, and all of it is done in a very
coordinated manner, there is an impression that in the morning they
receive a paper that has all they need to say and with a slight change
the same campaigning thesis is being circulated."
"In Azerbaijan you can clearly see the hierarchy, how orders come from
above, how they get spread, what happens to journalists who don't
agree with the rules of the game, like Rauf Mirkadirov (he was
arrested on charges of spying for Armenia), Khadija Ismayilova (she
was repeatedly blackmailed, spied on and a video on her personal life
was found in the net). The rules of the game are very clear - either
you are with the system or you are destroyed," Elibegova says.
According to Freedom House's latest report, both Armenia and
Azerbaijan remain among countries with 'not free press'. According to
the 2014 report, Azerbaijani indexes appear very negative as the
country is said to be going in a wrong direction. It is mostly about
silencing independent opinions, among which the voices that are heard
in the internet. Armenia is in a little better situation."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress