AN INTERVIEW WITH GEGHAM MANUKYAN
Gegham Manukyan is a member of the Central Committee of the Dashnaktsutiune Armenian Revolutionary Federation in the Republic of Armenia. He was interviewed during festivities celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] organised by the Yezidi community in Armenia, and staged at the Russian Theatre in Yerevan. This interview was conducted by Onnik James Krikorian in Yerevan, Armenia, on 2 December 1998.
GM: The PKK has representatives in many countries. Most of these conserns are as a result of Turkish propaganda, and it is absurd to suggest that there are PKK military bases in Armenia.
LATEST BLOG POSTS
Online Social Networks in Armenia-Azerbaijan peacebuilding and cross-border communication
Since taking the first tentative steps to bring bloggers from Armenia and Azerbaijan together online in June 2008, it’s been both amazing and surprising to look back at how new media has managed to encourage and facilitate communication between the two countries. Locked into a bitter conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, the online environment which exists today was unimaginable two and half years ago. Even professionally it has opened up new possibilities. As a journalist, for example, the first time I ever co-penned an article with a counterpart in Azerbaijan, ironically enough entitled Nagorno Karabakh Dispute Takes to Cyberspace, was in isolation. We both wrote two separate pieces and submitted them to an American editor who then cut and put them together as one. Today, even though many publications covering the Caucasus still work like this, I can now do so without any in between involved.
The Media in Armenia and Azerbaijan: Effective or Affective?
Many academics argue that the influence of the media is especially strong in environments where citizens depend on a limited number of news sources. In contrast, when citizens have alternative sources of information they are less subject to the potential effects of media. Following this argument, how affective is the media in Armenia and Azerbaijan in establishing an image of the “other” in an environment where over 90 percent of the populations choose television as their primary source of information on current events with over 40 percent choosing family, friends, neighbors and colleagues as their second main source?
Armenia: The Spear
Being based in Armenia for 12 years hasn’t only given me plenty to photograph and write about, but also provides me with an opportunity to fix for many large media organizations. Last year, for example, I regularly fixed for the BBC, Al Jazeera English and The Wall Street Journal as well as photographed and organized a series of reports for The National. However, albeit with a few exceptions, the subject matters were the same — Armenia-Turkey relations and the unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.