Lachin Article in Karabakh’s Demo Newspaper
Suarassy, Kashatagh Region, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh / Armenian-controlled Republic of Azerbaijan © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006
Tom de Waal, Caucasus Editor of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) and author of Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, just rang up on the road from Stepanakert to Yerevan to arrange meeting up for a drink tonight before he shoots off to Tbilisi tomorrow.
Anyway, Tom also wanted to tell me that my article written for IWPR on depopulation in the Kashatagh region has been reprinted in Karabakh’s Demo newspaper. I don’t know much about this paper apart from the fact that it’s Karabakh’s first and only independent newspaper.
Setting up an independent newspaper for Nagorny Karabakh has long been a dream of Gegam Bagdasarian, head of the Stepanakert Press Club. Now it’s happened, and Bagdasarian is editor-in-chief of a twice-monthly paper called Demo.
The idea behind it was to create a newspaper that is not beholden to the authorities or any opposition movement, but is a voice for the public at large - hence the title Demo, as in “democracy”. The paper’s 16 pages are in Armenian and Russian.
“Every citizen should have the chance to know what is actually happening in his motherland and not just from one source but from several,” explained Bagdasarian. “We intend to become a really independent source.”
Founding an independent newspaper is a very delicate project in a society which emerged from a devastating conflict ten years ago. Until now there has only been one main newspaper, the government publication Azat Artsakh.
Bagdasarian says he is well aware of the sensitivities. “We understand what a responsible mission we are undertaking, as there is virtually no precedent in the Armenian information space,” he said. “Demo is trying to become a free publication in the classic sense, meaning it depends only on the reader. We are not forcing our views on anyone. When we have a free market, the reader himself can choose what reason and conscience dictate.”
Karabakh president Arkady Gukasian, himself a former journalist, told IWPR last month that he welcomed the project. “A free press is a sign of the formation of civil society,” Gukasian said. “We are now facing the biggest challenge - helping democracy to take root here.”
Anyway, Tom says that nobody in Karabakh disputes what was written in the article, and nor should they as everyone seems to be talking about it nowadays. Ara Manoogian over at Martuni or Bust has published a letter from a coalition in the Diaspora trying to reverse the depopulation while Hetq Online and Armenia Now have also been reporting on the same subject matter.
The IWPR article is available in English and Russian, while a previous article for Eurasianet is also available in the same languages here. Some of my older b/w photographs from Lachin can be found here.
Unedited unofficial Armenian translations of the Eurasianet and IWPR articles in Microsoft Word format can be download here.
Comment by Onnik — November 13, 2006 @ 2:05 pm
Just discovered that Demo has a web site at http://demo.ktsurf.net/
Comment by Onnik — November 13, 2006 @ 3:24 pm
Weird evening. Met up with Tom, Seda and Karine from IWPR at The Club for dinner and wine and we were joined by The Economist’s Moscow Correspondent as well as Karen Topchian, formerly of IWPR but now the Representative of the Karabakh parliament in the Armenian National Assembly. Well, that was nice enough, but a local MP came to meet IWPR’s Chechnya coordinator, Timur Aliyev, who was also in town and with us.
That was Armen Ashotyan, an MP from the Prime Minister’s Republican Party. With him was another Republican Party guy responsible for youth who I remember from the Indian protests at YSMU earlier in the year. It was especially funny because I wasn’t well received at YSMU when I covered those protests. However, in informal surrounds and with mutual acquaintances we kind of joked about the absurdity of it all.
Anyway, Yerevan is just far too small.
Comment by Onnik — November 14, 2006 @ 1:43 am