ABOUT
Onnik James Krikorian is a journalist, photographer and media consultant from the United Kingdom. Published by The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, National Geographic, Geographical, The National, Stratfor, New Internationalist, EurasiaNet, Transitions Online, Institute of War for Peace Reporting, UNICEF and others, he has also fixed for the BBC, Al Jazeera English, The Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic.
Artist Lusine Aguletsi, Yerevan, Armenia
© Onnik James Krikorian 2000
He has over thirty years experience in the national and international media, including working contracts at The Bristol Evening Post, The Independent, and The Economist. For five years, from 2007-2012, he was the Caucasus Regional Editor for Global Voices.
He has covered the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh since visiting the disputed territory for The Independent in 1994. In August 2008 he also covered the Russia-Georgia war. This has led to related work as a trainer in conflict-sensitive reporting as well as in social media for Armenian, Azerbaijan, Georgian, Moldovan, Turkish, Abkhazian, and Ossetian journalists.
He speaks regularly on the same at many international conferences and was part of an expert working group, Evaluating the Impact of New Media on Conflict, at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington D.C. in 2010. Pioneering the use of new and social media in Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict resolution, transformation, and cross-border cooperation from 2008 onwards, this has since expanded to include Armenia-Turkey as well as Abkhazia and South Ossetia, including work for the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia.
In October 2012 he presented his work related to the media in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict at a seminar organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Dublin, Ireland. And in February 2013 he was also an expert speaker at an intergovernmental seminar on evaluating methods to combat violent extremism online in Abu Dhabi, UAE, organized by the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), and the Hedayah Center.
From August to November 2013 he was contracted by Canal France International to organise the 4M Journalism and Social Media Forum held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in November 2013 for journalists and media professionals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. In June 2014 he was also a participant for a closed expert meeting on Developing an Effective Counter-Narrative Framework for Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) organised by The International Centre for CounterTerrorism — The Hague and the Hedayah Centre.
In 2015 this work has continued with workshops held for the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) and Transparency International Georgia as well as the OSCE office in Tajikistan, the OSCE Centre in Kyrgyzstan, and OSCE Transnational Threats Division. He also holds workshops on social media, mobile reporting, and conflict-sensitive reporting for international media support organisations such as Free Press Unlimited and Deutsche Welle Akademie.
From December 2016 to December 2018 he worked on multiple external consultancy contracts with the OSCE Transnational Threats Department / Action against Terrorism Unit (TNTD / ATU) on drawing up training curriculums on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) for Youth, Women, and Community Leaders.
He can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.
LATEST BLOG POSTS
Alleged Coup Exacerbates Armenia’s Political Crisis
Less than a year before crucial parliamentary elections, political tensions in Armenia continue to rise (see EDM, May 21). For over a month, an acrimonious war of words has been waged online between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the country’s spiritual leader, Catholicos Karekin II (also known as Ktrij Nersessyan) (see EDM, June 23). Pashinyan accuses Karekin II of interfering in the country’s politics and fathering at least one illegitimate child despite a sacred vow of celibacy. Such claims, including others of corruption and autocratic rule, predate Pashinyan’s premiership and have shadowed the spiritual leader since his inauguration as Catholicos in October 1999.
The Days of the OSCE Minsk Group Were Already Numbered
The demise of the OSCE Minsk Group, an internationally mandated effort to mediate between Armenia and Azerbaijan, ends an era that spanned almost three decades. Cochaired by France, Russia, and the United States, it failed to achieve its goal amid rivalry between the co-chair countries themselves and disagreement between the parties.
Escalating Rhetoric Threatens Armenia’s Faltering Democratic Path
After over a month of harsh and inflammatory rhetoric directed against the Armenian Apostolic Church, and especially its head, Catholicos Karekin II, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan late last month declared a ceasefire in the escalating war of words. The truce ostensibly took effect on at the very beginning of this month and will last until the end of the week when it will be assessed.