Epress.am News from Armenia
New and social media is slowly starting to fill the information void in open Armenia-Azerbaijan communication (especially in the case of independent reporting of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict) and circumvent official or self-imposed restrictions in place on objective reporting free from negative stereotyping, propaganda and occasional misinformation, writes Onnik Krikorian in Global Voices.
The independent media organization Internews, for example, is just one example of peace building initiatives migrating online — the internet is perhaps the only medium through which such films can be seen and distributed. Such stories are rarely, if ever, reported in the mainstream media.
Part of a project implemented by British NGO Conciliation Resources, and already mentioned on Global Voices, some of the reports are very original and unique indeed, writes Krikorian. In the film Download, for example, virtual conflict teaches a previously addicted online gamer in Azerbaijan a lesson on the futility of war.
Meanwhile, former residents from Shusha, a once mainly Azerbaijani-inhabited town in Nagorno-Karabakh known to Armenians as Shushi, remember their lives before the war in Shusha Under Canvas. Negotiations to end the conflict contain provisions for the return of IDPs to their former homes in a phased implementation of any settlement.
Although the conflict was accompanied by numerous cases of ethnic cleansing and the tit-for-tat expulsion of minority communities, there are reportedly as many as 20,000 people of Armenian origin still living in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital and a few hundred ethnic Azeris in Yerevan, the Armenian capital.
Most are women or the children of mixed marriages, but in both cases, they keep a low profile. However, My Niece From The Caucasus profiles an Azerbaijani woman who remained in ethnic Armenian-populated Karabakh. Internews Armenia follows her on a journey to to meet with her family now living in Ukraine.
The same theme is examined in At the 8th Kilometer, a joint production between Internews in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The film looks at the lives of women from mixed marriages now separated from their biological families. The report also includes an interview with an ethnic Armenian woman still living in Azerbaijan.
A more positive story, however, is told in All Films About Love, a touching look at an Armenian man still married to his Azerbaijani wife. Despite being directly affected by the war, the two pensioners remain together and say their love for each other is intact and as strong as ever.
Very definitely, it is the jointly produced films where the project shines. In Spectrum, for example, artists in Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan ponder the conflict as well as the need for communication, understanding, and peace through their work.
And in Kamancha-nameh, two musicians talk of their love for the same instrument which is part of both country’s musical tradition. Despite attempts by the media to focus on the differences between the two nations, the report shows how similar they actually can be.
But perhaps one of the strongest collaborations, My Enemy – My Friend, details the experience of Armenians and Azerbaijanis held captive or taken hostage by the other side. It also reports on the work of two men on both sides of the front line who work tirelessly to free or exchange them.
Breaking many stereotypes, one can’t help but realize how narrow coverage in the mainstream media of both countries is with regards to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh as well as the possibility for Armenians and Azerbaijanis to live in peace. Now, however, such reports can be found online.