conflict voices 24 october 2012 osce presentation

Trinity College, Dublin24th October 2012

Onnik Krikorian

Journalist, Photojournalist, Consultant

http://peace.oneworld.am

http://peace.oneworld.am/blog/

http:www.facebook.com/conflictvoices

http://www.onnik-krikorian.com

http://twitter.com/onewmphoto

http://www.facebook.com/onewmphoto

[email protected]


Nagorno Karabakh• 1994 ceasefire

• Approx 25,000 dead

• Approx 1 million refugees and IDPs

• 16 percent of Azerbaijan controlled by Armenian forces

• Border skirmishes and clashes, increase in sniper incidents. Over 3,000 dead since 1994 ceasefire

• New generations living without contact with the other side

• Conflict a political tool in Armenia and Azerbaijan

• Peace deal still elusive

• Threat of new war


Working Towards Peace?

If the current situation is for about 99% to blame on the regimes in Armenia and Azerbaijan (and, de

facto, in Nagorno Karabakh), what about the remaining 1 or 2%? That is the people themselves, and

especially “civil society”, the organised part of society that could (or ought to) function as a

counterweight to their own authorities. But they don’t. Yes, there are numerous (internationally

supported) peacebuilding initiatives, expert meetings, people-to-people contacts. But that is not

enough. […] most of the time not going beyond the usual suspects, not reaching out to wider society,

or even worse: are directed at an international audience.

21 September 2012 – a good day for the birth of a new peace movement in the South Caucasus,

Guido de Graaf bierbrauwer http://mountainsofpeace.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/21-september-

2012-a-good-day-for-the-birth-of-a-new-peace-movement-in-the-south-caucasus/


Working Towards Peace?


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


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


Attitudes in Armenia


Attitudes in Azerbaijan


Attitudes in Georgia


Social Media Crossing Borders


Twitter Diplomacy


http://peace.oneworld.am

Caucasus Conflict Voices


Alternative Narratives

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


Alternative Narratives

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


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

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


Cyber Realism

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/


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

There's a strong interest in developing an online civic space where there can be level-headed

discussion of controversial topics across communities. [...] But like most other places the existing

NGO sector seems poorly prepared to make the most of the digital opportunities [...]

Dan McQuillan, Twitter activism in Tbilisi

http://www.internetartizans.co.uk/taking_twitter_activism_to_tbilisi


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/


Cyber Realism

Mary Joyce of the Meta Activism project has warned that a key factor in successful online activism

appear to be novelty – it’s hard to articulate “best practices” because one of the best practices is to be

the first to try a particular technique. If we take the lesson from Fatullayev’s release that Twitter

campaigns, focused on individual public figures who use Twitter, leveraging offline media attention are

a useful strategy, it seems likely that campaign organizations will adopt the technique and use it to the

point where future implementations aren’t worth an article or a blog post.

Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices Co-founder

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/05/27/who-freed-eynulla-fatullayev-and-what-does-his-

release-mean-for-twitter-activism/


A Holistic Approach


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

conflict voices 24 october 2012 osce presentation

Documents

armenia trinity college

georgia trinity college

w college

azerbaijantrinity college

g college

karabakh conflict

anarrative of peace

armenianazerbaijani