Defense Ministry official: "Unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia uses only facts in information wars."

Tert.am had an interview with the head of the Armenian Defense Ministry’s public relations department, Karabakh freedom fighter, General-Mayor Vardan Avetisyan about the Armenian-Azerbaijani information wars, Armenian Armed Forces and role of the local mass media.

- What is our condition regarding information wars?

- In the information war field we are trying to work only with facts. The made-up statements of Azerbaijan and Azeris about their ethic origin, their pompous statements about territories of Nagorno-Karabakh are spread everywhere but they are nothing before the historic truth. They are just afraid to look into the eyes of reality as this reality is not beneficial to them.
We are periodically witnessing horrible scenes like for instance the destruction of the Armenian cemetery in Jougha, Nakhijevan. They are trying to turn these territories into Turkic ones and eliminate the evidences that Armenians were ethnic people of these territories.

Unlike their false scholars, who recently published articles about Karabakh’s Tigranakert mocking us, and considering Tigranakert an Azerbaijani town, Armenia is coming up with facts only.
Unlike them we have rich material culture and cultural samples, historic-cultural monuments, historiography, which prove the path our people have passed.

I think after Safarov developments the entire world learnt that unhidden Armeniaphobia is the disease of the whole people of Azerbaijan.

- What issues does Armenia face in the information war field?

-Information war is not only the issue of the Armed Forces. We are living in the world of network wars. Current global challenges suppose that each conflict engages the whole potential of the public and their skills. Today you are not able to win the enemy by arrow or partisan squads. The information wars and the propaganda stemming from it may change the pace of developments in a second.

Each citizen may become the participant, target of the information war, thus first of all it is very important for our public to be armed with corresponding knowledge, recognize the path the people have passed, love his/her country, evaluate everything that our friends defended for us at the price of their lives. Only in this way it is possible to confront the attempts of dividing our nation through propaganda.

- In your opinion, what impact does local mass media have on forming public’s opinion about army?

- Mass media is part of the information war. Mass media is the best means of propaganda for the local, internal, external audience. In this case it is very important for us to have healthy, sober, caring reporters who will realize that each their article relating to army may be dangerous for the security of the whole public and may be used by the enemy against us, like it is often being done.

- Which are the circumstances that impede the reinforcement of army?

- I think our army, being formed in the conditions of war, has passed a long path. Today our Armed Forces are quite reinforced but the army-building process continues as army always needs being refreshed and strengthened. All the flaws existing today will be eliminated as we are so young both as state and as an army.

-Did you think during the war years that the country will have such an army?

- Regular army was the dream of all of us, it was also the must of the time. Our newly independent state was forced to be engaged in thewar and the formation of army was a necessity.
Today our army is the pride of the whole nation, the guarantee of our country’s security.