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
Мысли против стереотипов миротворческой риторики в азербайджано-армянских встречах
Моя статья продиктована многолетним опытом участия в миротворческих встречах. В 2000 году я в составе азербайджанской группы встретился в Упсале с армянскими коллегами в семинаре, организованным факультетом Университета Упсалы по мирному разрешению конфликтов. В нем, помнится, тон обсуждений был таков: армянская сторона стремилась доказать, что нам надо исходить из существующей ситуации и согласиться с отделением Нагорного Карабаха. Правда, все это было представлено в дружелюбном тоне и оснащено миротворческими и гуманистическими призывами об отвратительности войны и истребления людей. Только один человек из Нагорного Карабаха, живущего в Армении внес в этот общий тон некоторые милитаристские нюансы, намекая, что армия Нагорного Карабаха ой как сильна, так сильна что даже способна дойти до Анкары.
Anomalous Autonomy As A Solution To The Mountainous Karabakh Conflict
In the present phase of the conflict over Mountainous Karabakh, the deadlock in the peace process is due to symbolism. There is no solution through standard methods: the Armenians are not ready to give away the symbol of an independent republic, while the Azeris refuse the alteration of their borders. Similar situations exist in the conflicts between Chechnya and Russia, and between Abkhazia and Georgia. In order to resolve this deadlock, we are proposing a new autonomy model (‘nomy’ is law in Greek, ‘autonomy’ means ‘ruling oneself according to one’s own laws’).
Qafqazda etnik konfliktlərin “semiotik anomaliyalar” prinsipində çözümü (Dağlıq Qarabağ timsalında)
Dağlıq Qarabağ konfliktinin indiki mərhələsində konfliktin çözümü adların, simvolların yığılıb törətdiyi çıxmaza, küncə düşüb. Standart yollarla oradan heç cürə çıxmaq olmur: ermənilər müstəqil respublika simvolunu güzəşt edə bilmirlər, azərbaycanlılar isə öz sərhədlərini dəyişib Azərbaycanın məkanca kiçilməsinə razı ola bilmirlər. Oxşar durum Çeçenistan və Rusiya, Abxaz və Gürcüstan konfliktlərində də var. Biz bu çıxmazdan qurtulmaq üçün yeni avtonomiya modelini təklif edirik (“nomiya” yunanca qanundur, “avtonomiya” isə “öz qanunları ilə özünü idarə edən” deməkdir).