The role of media in peaceful resolution of civil wars: The case of Tajikistan from the point of peace communication

In general, the media area is the most contributing factor in the development and gaining importance of the communication field. When we look at the relationships of media and society, every event or happening in the world is given through media channels and in the ways that media wants. Particularly in recent days the role of the media has increased at a time when civil wars are taking place in various parts of the world. However, this role can be positive or negative. According to the research results on the war-torn countries, the media in some countries served in the deepening of the conflict, while the conflict has ended with the influence of the media in others. Therefore, it is important to know how the media was used in conflict situations in the past and learn from the mistakes in order to use the media in a peaceful way in today's conflicts. Peace communication tells us to use media positively in conflict situations. However, this topic has not been sufficiently and thoroughly investigated. In many studies on media and conflict relationships which have been completed so far, the media's role has been discussed and studied in general terms. The case of Tajikistan's conflict investigated in this project from the media point of view has not been explored and thus it is examined in details in the present study. This study is based on qualitative research paradigm. First, selected case studies related to some countries in which civil wars were experienced but ended with peaceful resolutions were carefully reviewed. Then, the case of Tajikistan was studied based on the interview findings coming from direct eyewitnesses of the civil war and content analysis of the newspaper accounts of the time. The results of the study shows that in starting the Tajikistan civil war, behind political conflict, economic weakness and influence of foreign countries, the media played a negative role as well. The independence of Tajikistan was accompanied by a loss of control over the media which was the case during the Soviet era, and this challenging situation affected negatively the media environment. In the beginning of the war, the sides of conflict used the media against each other. However, when there were a lot of human loss in the war and thousands of people fall into the status of refugees, both politicians and the media became aware that they have to act to stop this situation. Significant work has been done to end the civil war in Tajikistan from the points of political resolutions and peace communication. The media has played a major role in promoting peace among the people and inviting the conflicting parties to peace. In general, both the government- sided media and the opposition-sided media have acted in the direction of making peace. In particular, by government-sided media has done a lot for making peace. In this respect, the newspapers "Cumhuriyat" and "Sadoi Mardum" published peaceful views of the official government in all publications about peace. The program "Khoki Vatan (Homeland)" formed in the "Radio of Tajikistan" played a major role in promoting peace too. At the end of the study, implications for future research and practices are discussed from the point of peace communication and resolution of conflicts rooted in civil wars. Keywords: Peace Communication, Civil War, Medya, Peace, Conflict Resolution.