The Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia has organized the 8^th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists in observance of the 25^th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Armenia and of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and what is very symbolic is the fact that it is being held in both Yerevan and Stepanakert.

This is what Director and Editor-in-Chief of Lebanon’s Aztag Daily, Chairman of the Coordinating Council for Pan-Armenian Forums of Journalists Shahan Kandaharian said in an interview with “Artsakhpress”, highlighting the fact that the 5^th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists was also held in Stepanakert in 2010.

“During the 5^th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists, we discussed information security issues and especially the adversary’s misinformation, as well as the strategic objectives for resisting the information war. Due to this, during the Four-Day Artsakh War, Armenian media outlets of Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora were already ready to solve the problems with the provision of information and come out victorious from the information war. There was no mishap, and the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora triumvirate had an impact and presented the international community the truth about the events that took place in April, stating who the attacker and the terrorist was and what kinds of inhumane acts that Azerbaijan demonstrated as a country that has always violated the norms of war. The Armenian media played a serious role in providing objective coverage, commentaries and analyses. We Diaspora Armenians felt all this during the joint discussions in Stepanakert,” Kandaharian said, adding that the 5^th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists helped the journalists of Artsakh and the Diaspora get to know each other, and this contributed to mutual partnership. According to Kandaharian, the relations became stronger and deeper after the forum, and the 8^th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists is the continuity of those relations.

According to Kandaharian, even today, there are Armenian media outlets in the Diaspora that always refer to the news provided by Artsakh’s media outlets and have their correspondents in Artsakh and Armenia.