The sessions of the 8^th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists (“Armenian Statehood: Axis of Unity”), which is organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora, drew to an end in Yerevan and Stepanakert.

In an interview with Hayern Aysor, Editor-in-Chief of Arevelq website Sako Arian shared his thoughts about the role and significance of Armenian media and talked about the speech that he had given during the forum.

Sako Arian: Armenian media outlets stand with Armenian soldiers to protect the interests and security of the Armenian people, maintain the role of Armenia in ensuring stability in the Caucasus and show the real image of Armenians around the world. It is necessary to pay special attention to the Armenian journalists who work for prestigious and internationally recognized media outlets. I attach great importance to their work since they are our sincere heroes. During the Four-Day Artsakh War in April, we saw what kinds of security zones Armenian journalists created to protect our interests and defend our positions among foreigners or Armenians. I dream of seeing Armenian journalists and photojournalists who speak in foreign languages among the participants of these forums. They need to be by our side because they have great potential that we can use. They can do something that is important and helpful thanks to the successes that they have achieved in the field of journalism.

Through their activities, Armenian media outlets help Armenia become more influential and attractive, especially in the Armenian-populated sectors of the world where people know almost nothing about Armenia.

Armenian and Diaspora Armenian media outlets need to create a bridge with the outside world in order to show everyone which party initiates military operations in Artsakh.

We must not be limited to writing editorials and publishing articles. We need to speak in the language of the world and convey our message to the world. Media is the most powerful weapon in the world today, be it a photo, an article or a report.

For instance, when the Azerbaijanis invaded Talish during the days of the war in April and killed peaceful civilians by cutting off their ears, we disseminated news about that in five languages to shed light on the Azerbaijanis’ atrocious acts and the fact that ISIL is not only in Syria.

During this forum, I gave a speech entitled “The experience of Arevelq website in providing coverage of the troubles faced by the Armenians of Aleppo”. In my speech, I talked about how important it is for media outlets to tell the truth about the issues of the Syrian-Armenians.

In my speech, I also addressed the willingness of the RA Ministry of Diaspora to provide the assistance that it has provided to Syrian-Armenians in Armenia and stated that the RA Ministry of Diaspora and Minister Hranush Hakobyan, who is well aware of the role and significance of the Armenian community of Aleppo, has done the impossible to help the Syrian-Armenians ever since the first days of the Syrian war when there were not many Syrian-Armenians moving to Armenia.

Gevorg Chichyan