Reaching out to Armenia’s youth

Blogs have become a “journalistic medium” or in Armenian “lradvakan michotzarum,” explained Samvel Martirosyan at the lecture presentation held on February 7 at the Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution Resource Center. 

The overall lecture was about “Internet, Blogging and Democracy” and was directed toward a young Armenian audience.  The participating youth were primarily those who frequent the Resource Center and attend the activities and games we organize.  The intent was to invite this youth who, as I have come to understand, are not afraid to express their opinions and are more than willing to provide their personal insight.  The participants ranged from high school to university students as well as graduates.  

It turned out not be a lecture but rather an interactive discussion about the internet and blogs.  Mr. Martirosyan initially began his presentation by discussing the recent importance of the internet as a tool for democracy.  He provided examples of how in countries like China and Iran they are beginning to use the internet to seek information from the rest of the world and how internet is increasingly proving to be an obstacle to the authorities there.  Thus, the authorities are seeking to control search engines like google and moderating online forums and discussions.  These examples show the importance of the internet in providing the people with the ability to access information and communication. 

Then, Mr. Martirosyan moved onto the topic of the internet sector in Armenia and explained how this is particularly a sector in which the authorities are not necessarily monitoring and filtering as much.  This is because there is really not much concern for the authorities within this realm.  There are figures which estimate that the number of Armenians which have access to the internet range anywhere from 35,000 to 125,000.  That is approximately 2% of Armenian residents which actually use the internet.  As a result, internet does not prove to be such a threat to the authorities and continues to remain relatively free.  

Thus, a recent trend within the internet world has been the development and use of blogs.  As Mr. Martirosyan explained, blogs can range anywhere from an individual’s account of their daily lives to a discussion of more serious topics regarding politics, society or other issues.  Recently, blogs have been providing an objective viewpoint of what is occurring “on the ground.”  He provided an example of one particular blogger in the U.S. who was writing during the Katrina catastrophe and how he discussed the level of water was on the ground and the events occurring there.  This proved to be a more helpful and useful resource than what the popular news channels were broadcasting at the time. 

And blogs are yet another field in Armenian which can be further developed.  Currently, many foreigners and Diasporans have established blogs and they are writing in English.  Then there are also a few blogs which are in Armenian.  Yet many more Armenians are contributing to blogs in Russian.  As of now, Armenian blogs are not quite developed and it could possibly be because of technical difficulties regarding the universal code for Armenian font.  Either way, this issue will soon be resolved and hopefully, blogging in the Armenian language will soon be further developed.    

After Mr. Martirosyan had finished discussing some of these major points and sharing a few stories, I then urged the youth to consider using their energy and willingness to express themselves by contributing to the ArmYouth Blog.  As the purpose of this blog is to encourage young people to think critically, the intent of this lecture presentation was to clarify the importance of communication via the internet, blogging and to encourage the young Armenians to begin to start writing.  Many of the participants expressed their interest in doing so in the near future.  So look out for their posts real soon!