While tens of thousands of citizens have taken the streets in nationwide protests in Armenia, it’s become evident that there’s discrepancy in the coverage. In this week’s news, the government of Armenia has made it clear that they’re occupied and the interests of the citizens hitting the streets do not interest them. .
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has been in Washington DC for the last few days. In a tweet, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the launch of a U.S.-Armenia Strategic Dialogue and praised Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s “conciliatory position” on Artsakh. In a statement published by US Department of State, Secretary Blinken expressed his appreciation for “the vision and the courage and the flexibility that the prime minister and Armenia have been showing in this process working toward what we all want, which is a lasting peace.” In turn, FM Mirzoyan appreciated the US “support through the Armenia-Turkish normalization process.”
Meanwhile on May 2, Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan met with Azerbaijani President’s Foreign Policy aide Hikmet Hajiyev in Brussels with the participation of EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivo Klaar. No official statements were made from each side but Klaar tweeted that he was glad to host this meeting for the second time. As a reminder, Hajiyev is know for his derogatory and racist remarks on social media against the Armenian people. He constantly pushes an Armenophobic narrative on Twitter while publishing jokes about the Armenian nation as well as falsifying Armenian history. He’s one of their chief propagandists.
And lastly, the special envoys of Turkey and Armenia, Turkish diplomat Serdar Kilic and Ruben Rubinian, a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament, met in Vienna on May 3rd for the third round of negotiations on normalizing relations. According to several reports, both sides published similar statements that announced that both representatives “reaffirmed the declared goal of achieving full normalization between their respective countries through this process.”
According to the coverage of some of the largest outlets in Armenia, especially by some of the foreign funded ones, it’s evident that normalization with Turkey is vehemently being pushed, the case of over 100 Armenian POWs are still being ignored by the government, and the voices of thousands of Armenians in the streets practicing all forms of civil disobedience are being disregarded and intentionally minimized.
Be careful what outlets you follow. Do your due diligence and research who operates and funds some of the most well known media outlets out there. And remember to hold news outlets including this one accountable.
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