“We will come across the message that Russia is the only defender and guarantor of Armenia’s security in 2021,” the editor of the Atlanta Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, Zarine Kharazyan, said during the panel titled Anti-Western and Anti-Liberal Sentiments in the Caucasus in 2021: Inside the Propaganda Kitchen organized by Media Kentron.
According to her, there will continue to be attacks against Armenia’s political society, especially against specific NGOs that work towards building up Armenia’s democratic resistance. There will also be more attacks against Western culture and values. “Activities with political motivations will also take place, which will attempt to tie the government’s failures with the West and blame pro-Western values for these failures.”
When asked about the regulatory issues that the media sector has in Armenia, Zarine Kharazyan responded, “The issue is that when misinformation is used as a serious political tool- and something like this happened in the USA when fake news was used to carry out several activities- and there are many concerns with the politicization of this fake news. This issue also has to do with Armenia. I will try to convince the government to take steps against misinformation. Last year, an individual was arrested by the Armenian National Security Service who was spreading misinformation on Facebook using a fake profile. They prepared a dramatic video with this individual’s confession. In the end, this person was released, and we did not learn much about this incident. Such activities, in reality, have the opposite effect because selective actions are taking place against misinformation, which can be considered a problem that has political reasons. It is very important to have a clear framework that will fight against this phenomenon that will not be temporary, selective, or directed towards political opponents of a specific time frame.”
Tatev Harutyunyan
