Armenia and the information war

[Federate]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Remember the Azeri propaganda piece calling on Armenian soldiers to desert? Looks like official Yerevan has a response.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Azeri’s Try to Lull NKR Soldiers into Defecting with Promises of U.S. Residence
[ 2009/07/30 | 13:34 ] society

Certain Azerbaijani news outlets have used the case of an Armenian soldier who fell into the hands of Azeri forces along the NKR line of contact to launch a new campaign designed to convince Armenian soldiers to defect.

The RoA National Security Service issued a statement in response, refuting Azeri claims that the Armenian soldier defected due to hunger and the long-term goal of moving to Europe.

The statement also alleges that a certain Azeri expert has called on NKR forces to defect in whole units since this way it will be easier to relocat6e them to Europe. It labels these Azeri calls as “figments of the imagination”.

The statement goes on to say that Azerbaijan has even offered Armenian soldiers advice on making their way through mine fields and how to hand themselves over to Azeri forces.

During the past few years, eight Azeri soldiers have defected to the Armenian side. Six of these eventually were relocated to a third country via the auspices of the United Nations and the International Red Cross.

http://hetq.am/en/society/aac/

[Federate]

Re: Armenia and the information war

On the Armenian blogosphere (part 1 of 2 or possibly more)

Raffi Kojian and Tigran Kocharyan

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Friday July 24, 2009 in Reporter.web.review

Washington - The so-called Madrid proposals for settlement of the Karabakh conflict that were published on July 10. Armenian officials initially welcomed them; they were quickly rejected, most publicly by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

In addition to that, within hours, more than 150 bloggers joined a petition that denounced the proposals as contradicting Armenian interests. The petition demanded that President Serge Sargsian pull out of negotiations, dismiss foreign minister Edward Nalbandian, and "act henceforth only for the interests of the Armenian statehood and with valor typical to the Armenian people."

In recent years, bloggers in Armenia have taken an increasingly prominent role as activists and reporters, complementing and sometimes sidelining established politicians and journalists.

From the days of web logs

In its basic form, blogging has been around as long as personal websites have. In the early 1990s individuals - mostly students and academics with access to the Internet - first began to establish such sites and post their and others' writings in the form of personal journals on the web.

The word blogging, though, was not coined until 1999, after the original term "web log" first morphed into "we blog" and then contracted into a "blog"; the term "blogosphere," referring to the community of bloggers, came soon after.

As with most Internet technologies, blogging spread from the United States. Not surprisingly, some of the first Armenian blogs were started by Internet users from the diaspora.

Raffi Kojian, who launched one of the first comprehensive sites on things Armenian, was perhaps also the first Armenian blogger. Two years after moving to Armenia, he launched the Life in Armenia blog in April 2001, attracting fellow repatriates. This was still at the time when neither personal web sites nor blogging platforms were yet readily available, especially in Armenia.

Blogging has become a mainstream phenomenon in the last few years. By now, many if not most public figures, activists, writers, and other individuals seeking publicity have their own online blogs.

Many English-language bloggers use platforms such as www.blogspot.com or www.wordpress.com, while Russian- and Armenian-language bloggers prefer www.livejournal.com.

These platforms provide even the least technically savvy among Internet users with an opportunity to establish a free outlet for their ideas that is accessible anywhere in the world.

Armenian activism

Many Armenians appear to have embraced blogging as a uniquely fitting vehicle for individual expression, networking, and community organization.

Blogger Tigran Kocharian, who writes in Russian and Armenian under the screen name Pigh (elephant in Armenian), was the initiator of the Karabakh petition last week.

Pigh has more than 1,400 followers, which is more than the regular readership of many of Armenia's veteran media outlets. This week he was ranked 340th in popularity among 1.2 million LiveJournal blogs. (Chess champion and Russian opposition activist Garry Kasparov was just ahead at the 325th spot.)

Last week's bloggers' action was not the first to deal with the Karabakh conflict.

Pigh and several fellow bloggers first made mainstream impact in December 2007, when they staged a protest during the "Days of Azerbaijan," a cultural event held at a Yerevan school.

Last December they visited Armenian TV stations to promote the use of maps that accurately represent the extent of Armenian control in and outside Karabakh.

For a country where only about six percent of population regularly use the Internet, bloggers in Armenia seem to punch well above their weight.

Presidential blogging

Perhaps the highest exposure for bloggers in Armenia came last year, following the contentious presidential elections in Armenia.

President-elect Sargsian established his own LiveJournal blog to take questions from bloggers. Hundreds of questions were forwarded, of which dozens were asked during a subsequent Q&A with the president-elect that was then uploaded to YouTube; other questions were answered in writing online.

The initial launch had no follow-up, however. The president's blog has not been updated since that press conference.

But as many veterans will tell you, and this quasi-blogger knows from personal experience, it takes a special kind of dedication to keep one's blog going.

Visit Emil Sanamyan's http://yandunts.blogspot.com to see for yourself, and come back to this page for upcoming installments on the Armenian blogosphere.

http://www.reporter.am/go/article/2009-07-24-on-the-armenian-blogosphere--part-1-of-2-or-possibly-more-

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Armenia and the information war

I had found this article a while back, i cant find the link, when i do i'll post it.

Alan Kasayev head of RIA Novosti division for Baltic States and the CIS

"I would like to mention that the election developments in Azerbaijan are complicated by internal instability. The Anti-Armenian propaganda and warlike rhetoric is used with a purpose to unite the nation. You should nor forget that over half of the Azerbaijani population are illiterate rural residents. On the whole, Azerbaijan is poorly developed and poorly educated country living at expense of oil income. Agriculture is not developing. There is no industry with an exception for a couple of refineries. The whole population of the country can't concentrate in the capital. So, the actively created image of an enemy is one of the elements of consolidation of the society".

[Federate]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Artsakh war article on the main page of Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org

[Icy]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Armenia:
"4000-6000 Dead"
"25000 Wounded"

Azerbaijan:
"11000-16000 Dead"
"70,000 Wounded"

Sounds like they got owned pretty hard.

[Pazooki]

Re: Armenia and the information war

We would've probably had all of Azerbaijan right now if Russia didn't make us sign that treaty.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Today.Az » Politics » National Geographic makes gross error related to Azerbaijan (PHOTO)

04 August 2009 [15:54] - Today.Az

National Geographic calls into question the fact related to Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s integral part, has been marked separately on Azerbaijan’s map posted to National Geographic magazine’s Web site (www.nationalgeographic.com) calling into question Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. This error also contradicts UN General Assembly resolutions. The error can be accessed via this link.

Unfortunately, this is not the first case revealed by Day.Az readers. Previously we have stated on numerous occasions that some Web sites try to indicate Nagorno-Karabakh as a separate state or within Armenia “forgetting” that Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan's territory as evidenced by history and approval by various experts from not only Azerbaijan but also the worldwide.

For example, German professor and expert on Caucasus Johannes Rau in his book entitled “Nagorno Karabakh in the History of Azerbaijan and Armenian Aggression against Azerbaijan” notes that Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of the historical territory of Azerbaijan. In addition, the German professor proves in his book that the present Armenia has appeared in historical Azerbaijani lands.

We hope that after the publication of this article National Geographic management will take into account this fact and will soon correct the error.

Day.Az urges all its readers not to remain indifferent to the grossest error on the National Geographic Web site and write a letter of protest with the following content to the email address [email protected]:

“To the attention of the www.nationalgeographic.com editors and publishers!

Your Web site contains a serious error related to Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Azerbaijan’s map posted to your Web site describes Nagorno-Karabakh as being separate territory whereas it is an integral part of Azerbaijan.

We do not know whether the error is deliberate or accidental, but we urge you to correct the error as soon as possible. Such errors can have a negative impact on your Web site’s image. We hope the error is not deliberate.

We urge you to correct the error and indicate Nagorno-Karabakh as being integral part of Azerbaijan.

/Name, middle name, surname/

/Day.Az/


URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/54373.html

[UrMistake]

Re: Armenia and the information war

If they are so stupid then we also have to complain about the Naxichevan status and how they image them into the maps as part of Az.

[Icy]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Seriously, I mean Armenians should
use more of the NKR and Nakijevan maps
in their t.v stations and advertisements.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Seriously, I mean Armenians should
use more of the NKR and Nakijevan maps
in their t.v stations and advertisements.

Some Armenian channels do use the current maps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-mUYQUAIxE&feature=channel_page