Commonspace, a publications of LINKS Europe, yesterday published my opinion piece on the need for conflict resolution practitioners in the South Caucasus to fully embrace social media as part of their initiatives and activities. This is especially necessary for the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Karabakh where its use is lacking to say the least. 

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh has continued for over three decades and peace continues to remain elusive, writes Onnik James Krikorian in this op-ed for commonspace.eu. Populist rhetoric and combative media reports reinforce entrenched positions in both societies, but the situation has become markedly worse with the emergence of a new battleground – social media. 

 

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Another new addition to an online arsenal were memes.

 

“According to social media specialists, political memetic content can make one more susceptible to hardliner arguments,” wrote Renée Rippberger just two days before the 2020 war broke out. “Political or nationalistic memes often use humour to make their message more palatable because however distasteful, ‘it’s comfortable, it speaks to peoples’ values and also their cultural upbringing.’” 

 

“In an entrenched conflict such as the one between Armenia and Azerbaijan, memes help to normalise uncompromising positions.”

 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise and some governments are already well aware of how the Tik-Tok and Instagram generation consume information. US Marine Corps Major Michael B. Prosser, for example, even suggested setting up a Meme Warfare Centre (MWC) in the US Army and noted the importance of involving cognitive scientists, cultural anthropologists, behavioural scientists, and game theory experts. 

 

“Memes influence ideas, ideas influence and form beliefs. Beliefs generate and influence political positions combined with feelings and emotions, eventually producing actions, which inform and influence behaviour,” Prosser wrote in his Masters thesis.

 

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Of course, the weaponisation of social media is nothing new. Both Brexit in the U.K. and the 2016 presidential election campaign in the U.S. already highlighted how rather than bring people together, social media is arguably more effective in driving them apart. And just as social media has proven an effective tool for violent extremist groups to radicalise susceptible individuals, so too has it been able to do the same in domestic politics and international relations.

 

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Despite some calls for civil society organisations working on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict to incorporate robust social media strategies in their work over the past 15 years, few if any have done so. Moreover, there is a distinct lack of content produced to reach specific demographic and linguistic groups in a manner accessible to them. Instead, for many in the conflict resolution community, it seems that simply opening a Facebook group or holding a Zoom meeting is considered enough. 

 

Suffice to say, it is not. Audiences are tiny and what content is produced is rarely seen. Even fewer amplify it further. 

 

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It is now time for individuals, grassroots movements, and civil society organisations engaged in this sphere to harness that power effectively. And if peace negotiations ever progress that far, the same will also be true for the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments as well.  

The full opinion piece can be read here while my previous work since 2010 on the use of social media in conflict zones and in the sphere of countering and preventing violent extremism are available here.