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    Categories: 2020

Social media brings conflict close to home for young Armenian and Azerbaijani Australians

ABC News, Australia
Oct 3 2020

By Gavin Coote and Scott Mitchell

In a small office in Sydney's northern suburbs, a group of young Armenian-Australians are gathering daily to comb news reports and social media feeds for stories from the front lines of Nagorno-Karabakh region that they can share online.

  • Armenia and Azerbaijan are now in an armed conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, after a longstanding territorial dispute
  • More than 100 people are reported to have been killed since fighting began last Sunday
  • Armenian and Azerbaijani community members in Australia say they are more exposed to the conflict than ever before, with videos from the frontlines circulating on social media

Young Armenian-Australian Sarine Soghomonian is using Instagram and Facebook to provide updates to the more than 50,000 ethnic Armenians living in Australia.

"At the moment we have 30,000 people, particularly in Sydney, that are looking to us to lead them on what to do at the present moment, so that's organising protests, guiding them on how to use their social media platforms to engage non-Armenians in Australia," she said.

The effort ramped up after last Sunday, when armed conflict began between Armenia and neighbouring Azerbaijan over the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh — a region that is officially part of Azerbaijan but governed by ethnic Armenians.

In the past week, renewed violence between the two former Soviet republics has resulted in more than 100 deaths.

Sarine Soghomonian and other young members of the Armenian-Australian community are trawling social media for updates on the conflict.(ABC News: Gavin Coote)

Aram Tufenkjian has never seen things so volatile in his ancestral homeland and he is watching it play out through messaging apps and social media posts.

"I was born in 1991, which is when the first war [between Armenia and Azerbaijan] actually started and we've seen a lot of skirmishes, we saw the four-day war in 2016 but this feels a lot different," he said.

"Although we haven't experienced the war, we've definitely seen the repercussions.

"For me, the main pain is looking through the list of unfortunate soldiers or even civilians that have passed away."

Ms Soghomonian said she doesn't think there's another community in Australia that is as mobilised as the Armenian community right now.

"It's as a result of our tumultuous history that has created the passionate Armenian that we've seen today."

This passion stems from the Armenian Genocide, which began in 1915. It is estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed under the Ottoman Empire.

Armenian National Committee of Australia executive director Haig Kayserian points out 90 per cent of the Australian diaspora are descendants of genocide survivors.

"The intergenerational trauma is always there, however after 105 years you can sometimes be numb to it," Mr Kayserian said.

"However, what's happening in part of the same Armenia that my family derives from, you just can't be numb to it; you do not sleep at night."

Haig Kayserian said it had been challenging to help members of the community contact relatives in the conflict zone.(ABC news: Gavin Coote)

Even with the advent of social media, Mr Kayserian said there were big challenges in connecting with relatives and friends in the conflict zone.

"We've been contacting them and trying to get on-the-ground reports and updates and just checking their safety, and it's been very difficult to contact them."

Mr Kayserian added many Armenian civilians caught up in the conflict were being warned not to post videos on social media for fear it would make them a target.

There's also a considerable Azerbaijani diaspora in Australia and many of the younger members are equally as invested in the renewed conflict, including Western Sydney lawyer Jessica Oyta.

"This is a very bittersweet moment for the Azerbaijani community internationally because it's upsetting to see so many of our soldiers fall, but at the same time it's sweet because this is a long time coming," she said.

"Now that the military's moving in to try and take back some of this land, it's a very emotional time for a lot of Azerbaijanis who have been waiting for this for a long time."

Jessica Oyta said that even though she felt strongly about Azerbaijan's cause, she did not think any tensions would flare up between the communities in Australia.(ABC News: Scott Mitchell)

Ms Oyta said being able to see footage on social media from Azerbaijan had helped her stay across developments.

"It's definitely an advantage to see this live footage coming from the ground but it is more emotional as well because you feel like you are there.

"It does raise a lot of patriotism, I think on both sides of the conflict."

Ms Oyta was quick to emphasise the ongoing tensions were not based on religion, in her view.

"The situation began in the early nineties, when roughly 1 million Azerbaijani people were expelled from their homes — that's almost 10 per cent of the nation's population," she said.

"We don't want to see any harm come to people, we've tried very hard to resolve this matter diplomatically for the past 30 years and it hasn't made any progress."

Melbourne professional Gunay Gazolva, who was born in Azerbaijan and lived there until she was 20 years old, said long running skirmishes had directly affected her family.

"I lost my relative back in July fighting on the frontline," Ms Gazolva said.

"Because we are a minority here, Azerbaijani Australians, our voices are not heard as much as we'd like."

While tensions grow between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ms Oyta doesn't think there is any reason to believe they could spill over to communities in Australia.

"I hope that we can put these things aside, because we are Australians, we shouldn't have foreign issues affect us here at home," she said.

"I obviously hope that as Australians we can live together comfortably together in peace and harmony but these are the realities of the situation unfortunately."

That's something Armenian-Australian leader Haig Kayserian can agree on.

"I'm not seeing much of that coming out of Australia and we hope that's the case, we don't want anything to spill over and ruin our harmony here in Australia."

The Australian Government supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and does not recognise Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state.

However, some Federal MPs from both major parties, including Trent Zimmerman, Joel Fitzgibbon, and Tim Wilson, have singled out "Azerbaijani aggression" as the cause of the current conflict.

In a statement, a Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) spokesperson said Australia was concerned by the renewed fighting in the "disputed territory".

"We urge parties to the conflict and all other sides to show restraint and support the efforts of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group to help negotiate a peaceful resolution," the DFAT spokesperson said.


Hovik Karapetian: