Overcoming negative stereotypes in the South Caucasus
Overcoming negative stereotypes in the South Caucasus is an online cross-border media project supported by the British Embassy Yerevan. It aims to promote positive examples of ethnic groups coexisting peacefully in a volatile region riven with frozen conflicts and attempts to provide an alternative to what is usually a partisan local media that not only self-censors, but also spreads misinformation and negative propaganda.
Following a recent collaboration between Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines blogger Arzu Geybullayeva and Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor Onnik Krikoryan, the project entered a second stage when two blogging journalism students, Vusala Alibayli and Khanim Javadova, joined a Georgian blogger and Global Voices Online author Dodi Kharkheli in the initiative.
As with the first stage of the project, the focus was on ethnic Armenians and Azeris living in Georgia. Unlike Armenia and Azerbaijan proper, still effectively at war over the Nagorno Karabakh, the two groups live side by side.