caucasus conflict voices

Istanbul, TurkeyNovember 2011

CAUCASUS CONFLICT VOICES

http://peace.oneworld.am

http://globalvoicesonline.org/

Onnik Krikorian

Journalist, Photojournalist, Online Media Consultant

Caucasus Regional Editor, Global Voices

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org

[email protected]

http://twitter.com/onewmphoto


What is Global Voices?

Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work

together to bring readers reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with an emphasis on

voices that are not ordinarily heard in the mainstream media.

Global Voices is translated into more than 30 languages by volunteer translators, who have formed the

Lingua project. Additionally, Global Voices has an Advocacy website and network to help people speak

out online in places where their voices are censored.

We also have an outreach project called Rising Voices to help marginalized communities use citizen

media to be heard. Technology for Transparency examines the use of online tools in increasing

transparency and accountability globally.


Global Voices Impact

Four websites most consistently account for links between

countries: YouTube, Wikipedia, the BBC and, a distant

fourth, Global Voices Online. The last of these, launched at

Harvard University in 2005 […] works to create links

between bloggers in different countries, and to find what it

calls “bridge bloggers” […]

The Economist, 2 September 2010

Working relationships with BBC, Reuters, Pulitzer Center for Crisis

Reporting, La Stampa and many others. Frequently quoted by CNN,

BBC, New York Times, The Economist etc.


Armenia-Turkey Coverage

Twitter

@gvcaucasus


Caucasus Coverage

Twitter

@gvcaucasus


http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.orghttp://threatened.globalvoicesonline.org

Twitter

@advox


Russia-Georgia War


New & Social Media in Conflict

Anyone who believes that all citizen media are objective and impartial is either mad or hasn't actually

read any citizen media. […] What's become very difficult is using citizen media to understand what's

actually happening on the ground. As we all know, some of the reports from both camps in the South

Ossetian conflict were likely manufactured and inaccurate. This sort of situation can get even more

complicated when there aren't impartial journalists on the ground.

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices co-founder

http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/13149/


Nagorno Karabakh• 1994 ceasefire

• Approx 25,000 dead

• Approx 1 million refugees and IDPs

• 14-16 percent of Azerbaijan controlled by Armenian and Nagorno Karabakh forces

• Border skirmishes and clashes, increase in sniper incidents

• New generations living without contact with the other side

• Peace deal still elusive

• Threat of new war


Nagorno Karabakh

Above: Azerbaijani Prisoner of War (PoW)

Right: Azerbaijani PoW and Civilian Hostages

Photos © Onnik Krikorian 1994


Media & Civil Society

• Media practices self-censorship

• Subjective and/or selective reporting, misinformation and propaganda

• Nationalist narratives and terminology over objectivity and neutrality

• Image of the enemy

• Rumor and speculation becomes accepted as 'fact'

• Civil Society – Usual Suspects and Closed Circles

• Political forces manipulate conflict for domestic political gain

• Communication and/or contact with the 'enemy' discouraged


Media Perpetuating Conflict?

[A] negative context [is set] in the public consciousness, which hinders dialogue and mutual

understanding […] Without more accurate and unbiased information […] free of negative rhetoric

and stereotypes, Armenians and Azerbaijanis will continue to see themselves as enemies without

any common ground.

Armenian and Azerbaijani International News Coverage – Empirical Findings and Recommendations

for Improvement, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)

http://epfound.am/files/mb_fg_report_finalized_edited_12.27.2008.doc


Media Perpetuating Conflict?

[...] people are often inclined to consider their existing attitudes and beliefs to be true and filter the

news through this lens. Thus, they accept messages in order to maintain their original perceptions. […]

bias in the local media [...] serves as a means to fuel and perpetuate hatred. This is a role the media

has and continues to play with regards to the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.

Armenian and Azerbaijani International News Coverage – Empirical Findings and Recommendations

for Improvement, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)

http://epfound.am/files/mb_fg_report_finalized_edited_12.27.2008.doc


Attitudes in Armenia


Attitudes in Azerbaijan


Attitudes in Georgia


Another Alternative?

Throughout history, war has affected media, with conflict often creating an information void. In the

21st century, media has begun to affect war more than ever before. Digital media technologies [...]

have increased communication and information dissemination in conflict settings [...]. These new tools

can be used to foment violence or to foster peace, and it is possible to build communication systems

that encourage dialogue and nonviolent political solutions.

Ivan Sigal, Global Voices Executive Director, Digital media in conflict-prone societies, Center for

International Media Assistance (CIMA)

http://cima.ned.org/publications/research-reports/digital-media-conflict-prone-societies


Social Media Crossing Borders


Catalysts

• BarCamp Caucasus

• Arrest, detention and eventual imprisonment of Azeri video blogging youth activists

• Increased use of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs

• Faster connection speeds making audio/video communication possible

• Coverage on Global Voices Online


Social Media Crossing Borders

• Facebook allowed insight into lives, interests and concerns across ceasefire line

• Additional connections made with like-minded Armenians and Azerbaijanis

• Global Voices covered stories ignored by Armenian and Azerbaijani media

• Facilitated translation of stories from Armenian and Azerbaijani

• Dissemination of alternative narratives ignored by Armenian and Azerbaijani media

• NGOs requesting contacts for their own cross-border projects

• Showed that Armenian-Azerbaijani communication and cooperation was possible

• Additional tools such as Skype, Twitter etc. facilitate daily communication


Twitter Communication


Alternative Narratives


http://peace.oneworld.am

Caucasus Conflict Voices



Nowhere in the world can you find two groups of people closer to each other. That is why we often

have these stupid disputes between Armenians and Azeris. "This house is Armenian" or "this house is

Azeri." Or "this music is Armenian or Azeri." This is exactly because the two have so much in common.

[...] I normally say, and people don't like this, that Armenians are just Christian Azeris and Azeris are

just Muslim Armenians. That is how much they are alike.

Seymur Baycan, Re-arming the Caucasus, Al Jazeera English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz47DkYn4Kk



We hear far too little of what I call this “third narrative” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, a

narrative of peace. It spins the idea that the two peoples are capable of getting along fine, have lived

together in the past and, if politicians are able to overcome differences on the Karabakh conflict, can

live together in the future. International mediators are too timid to speak this narrative or feel that it is

not their business. The media in both countries suppresses it.

Thomas de Waal, senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment and

author of Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War

http://peace.oneworld.am/conflict_voices_may_2011.html



Twitter

@gvcaucasus


Poignant Thoughts

For Love Of The Caucasushttp://thecaucasus.tumblr.com/


Ooops...

Above: Gori under Russian control, Georgia

Right: Russian Roadblock, Gori, Georgia

Photos © Onnik Krikorian 2008


Cyber Utopian or Skeptic?

The reason why the KGB wants you to join Facebook is because it allows them to learn more about you

from afar. It allows them to identify certain social graphs and social connections between activists.

Many of these relationships are now self-disclosed by activists by joining various groups.

Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

http://www.rferl.org/content/interview_morozov_internet_democracy_promotion/2284105.html


Identifying Networks


Imaginary Cosmopolitanism

I study the ways new media shapes people's perceptions of the world. It's my fond hope that social

networks such as Facebook will help users broaden their perspectives by listening to a different set of

people than they encounter in their daily life. But I fear services such as Facebook may be turning us

into imaginary cosmopolitans.

[...]

Is Facebook a space for cross-cultural interaction? For fomenting reactionary hatred? Or is it primarily a

space for online interaction with our local, offline friends?

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices co-founder, Does Facebook unite us or divide us?

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/03/zuckerman.facebook.global/index.html


Imaginary Cosmopolitanism

[...] we could well see a big jump in citizen to citizen diplomacy across this next year , as universities and

even high schools step up their efforts to integrate international awareness into their curriculum. We are

seeing all sorts of interesting uses of Skype, iChat, and other online video platforms to connect students

around the world in meaningful international experiences.

[...]

Will we become the best informed societies thanks to the information available, or the most polarized

societies as we gravitate to the networks (media and social) that share our biases? [...]

Sheldon Himelfarb, Associate Vice-President at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)

http://www.usip.org/publications/media-and-peacebuilding-trends-in-2010-and-looking-ahead-2011


Internet Use

Household Surveys, Caucasus Resource Research Centershttp://crrccenters.org

Internet Frequency in the Caucasus, Awareness, Adoption & Usehttp://katypearce.net/cv/?p=198


Internet Use

Armenia 2011 Media Public Opinion and Preference Survey, Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC)


Cyber Realism

New media tools will certainly help in getting people better acquainted with each other, but at the

same time can also be used to reaffirm existing biases. Just search on the Internet for Armenian and

Azerbaijani web sites and you can find a lot of trash and very harmful discourse from nationalist

websites. I’m mildly optimistic, but at the same time think we should be very cautious about what

we find on the Internet as well.

Bart Woord, International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) Secretary General

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/08/03/caucasus-an-interview-with-bart-woord/


Cyber Realism

I think you can’t do it just with social media tools, but as we’ve seen over the past 15 years, you

definitely can’t do it by meeting in Tbilisi for a weekend every summer. It becomes an “entertainment”

and I’ve had experience with those conferences in Georgia where it’s just one big coffee break and a

waste of money. However, I think that both approaches combined could propel things along.

Micael Bogar, Projects Manager at the American University's Center for Social Media

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/08/01/caucasus-an-interview-with-micael-bogar/


Questions & Discussion

[…] the internet is not magic; it is a tool. Anyone who wants to use it to bring nations closer together

has to show initiative, and be ready to travel physically as well as virtually. As with the telegraph before

it—also hailed as a tool of peace — the internet does nothing on its own.

The Economist, A cyber-house divided

http://www.economist.com/node/16943885?story_id=16943885


LinksGlobal Voices Online

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org

Caucasus Conflict Voices

http://peace.oneworld.am/

Global Voices Caucasus Twitter account

http://twitter.com/gvcaucasus

Personal Twitter account

https://twitter.com/onewmphoto

Caucasus Project Twitter account

http://twitter.com/caucasusproject

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