“It is a perfect conventional situation in the foreign field,” military expert Karen Vrtanesyan told Aravot, referring to the actions taken by Armenia in information wars. Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, wrote on Twitter that they are going to Shushi on a plane named “Khankendi,” where the 30th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s membership in the UN will be celebrated. In response to our question about how in connection with such information blows from the Azerbaijani side, when they try to put psychological pressure on our people with specific emphasis, is there an adequate policy in the Armenian information field at all at the state level, Karen Vrtanesyan answered, “This is not a story of a few days, but since 1988. Azerbaijan has always used propaganda pressure, carried out psychological operations, fires on settlements, and threatened Artsakh. Now, after the so-called untalented dismantling of the entire system of state resistance by the Armenian authorities, including information, it is clear that such psychological pressures are coming to the Armenian field without hindrance. They do not get any real answer. And in the case when it should simply be ignored, it is not done, instead the Azeri government propaganda speaks directly to the population of Armenia. This is one of the fronts that Nikol Pashinyan and his government have dismantled.”
According to Karen Vrtanesyan, “Very often something is said with the very expectation that they will respond here, and they will respond one by one. There should be responses to official threats, there should be statements about the status of Karabakh, etc. For example, there are no announcements about the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination, which should be made. And there are things that should not be responded to, but they respond. Today, in fact, in the whole information field, in general, by the state in Armenia, no serious work is being done to oppose the Azerbaijanis, be it in the form of reaction or contempt.”
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According to the expert, the situation on the outside field is perfect. He stated that there is no clear formula for the information struggle in the world. Different tools are used in different situations. He continued, “If there is an official threat, there should be an official response, if it is said something that contradicts the position of Armenia, then there should be a clear response from the official structures, if it is said at the level of the highest officials of Azerbaijan. And if any Azeri expert or blogger says something, there is no need to respond.”
Karen Vrtanesyan notes with regret that in the past, there were experts in Armenia who could have responded to the Azerbaijani side in case of clear need. “There were relevant departments and structures that had their own departments which dealt with it. Now it is in a paralyzed state… It is not that the Azerbaijanis are carrying out brilliant psychological operations; they just do not get any reaction. They often even receive support from the Armenian government in the form of statements that this or that territory is Azerbaijani. Using it, Azerbaijan is constantly moving forward. When they come forward, they say it is a disputed territory, and from the Armenian side they say that it is their territory. In other words, if they receive such convenient notes from the Armenian authorities, why shouldn’t they use them?”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
