Kandaharian: Azerbaijani Incursion on Wikipedia
By Shahan Kandaharian
There is a remarkable over-crowdedness on the website “The history of the truth: Armenian allegations.” The rings of an unending chain of misinformation about Armenian issues are made available online with a noticeable quickness of pace—to those, at least, who receive Armenian news in their inboxes through Google Alert. This seems to be the latest means adopted by the Turks in their information war, and it should not be ignored. Although not officially announced, this incursion of misinformation carries all the convincing ingredients that it enjoys the auspices and support of the Turkish state.
Last week, in parallel, the Azerbaijani “Today Az” website issued a political propaganda concern in cyberspace, calling the Azeris to war. The article, titled “The Azerbaijan-Armenia war continues on Wikipedia,” protested that the word searches of “Armenia,” “Artsakh,” “Gharapagh,” and “Artsakh conflict” yielded “false” information. The issue is clear: Artsakh is mentioned as being part of the Armenian Republic, as it was included in the borders of ancient Armenia.
Those who visit Wikipedia know that this open version of an encyclopedia online accepts input by visitors about a certain topic. “Today Az” therefore called for an influx of the “right” information and for the “correction” of the “falsehood” represented as information until now. In reality, of course, the call is for the perversion of facts!
Armenian visitors of Wikipedia must take part in this information-misinformation war. Wikipedia, or any self-respecting open encyclopedia, must finally realize that there’s the need of maintaining a certain level of credibility. And no matter how active the Azeri information incursion is, information must not be replaced by mis-information.
If we cannot have an impact on the intrigues of the “so-called” “history of the truth” website, we can at least take part in the maintenance of Wikipedia credibility.
We are not the aggressor, but we would be guilty if we stood still in the face of this unleashed attack. Meanwhile the authors of Wikipedia must understand that this incursion is as much against them as against the Armenians.
Shahan Kandaharian is the editor-in-chief of the Aztag Daily.
It’s long time for all Armenians on the Internet to come and join their handful of Armenian editors on Wikipedia to resist the claims of Azeri, Turkish, Kurdish, Georgian, and even Persian editors! Email me for more details (gg1982 [at] mail.ru), we can provide you with Wikipedia training, and coordinate your edits on articles most in need.