PBS Acknowledges Armenian Genocide

[Reincarnated Am]

In Response to Petition and E-mails

Several positive developments have taken place since my last week’s column calling for the boycott of those PBS stations that would air a debate on the Armenian Genocide immediately after the broadcast of Andrew Goldberg’s documentary, The Armenian Genocide, on April 17.

First, a couple of individuals under the name "Armenian Tidorts" initiated a petition, http://www.PetitionOnline.com/pbspanel/petition.html, asking everyone who is against "the debating of the Armenian Genocide with Genocide deniers and giving deniers equal air time," to sign it. In just a few days, more than 3,500 individuals of various nationalities from 55 countries (as of Monday night) have signed this petition which is being sent to Jacoba Atlas, the Senior Vice President of PBS Programming, urging her "not to approve the airing of the panel discussion" after the documentary. The petition is still on-going with more signatures pouring in every hour from around the world!

Second, many individuals have sent e-mails to Jacoba Atlas ([email protected]), urging her to cancel the panel discussion. In its response to these e-mails, PBS stated for the first time that it acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. PBS said that Goldberg’s documentary "features extensive never-before-seen footage and shares one of the largely untold stories of the 20th century, detailing what happened and why. The documentary also explains why, to this day, the Turkish government denies that the Armenian genocide took place. PBS is proud to air this film. The panel you mention was not designed to be a forum for those who deny genocide took place. We, like the majority of historians, nations and news organizations, accept that it did."

Third, several PBS stations have already indicated that while they would be broadcasting the Armenian Genocide documentary on April 17, they would not be airing the offensive follow-up panel discussion that includes genocide deniers Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan.

In view of these significant positive developments in just a few short days, I encourage everyone to continue pressing PBS to do the right thing and not to cave in to Turkish pressures. The above results indicate how sensitive PBS is to viewers’ comments, especially to those who support PBS stations financially.

For those who think that a call to boycott PBS is an attempt to stifle free speech, I would say that there would not be a boycott if PBS would cancel its plans to air the insulting panel discussion. Furthermore, calling for such a boycott is exercising one’s right in a free society to decide whether to watch or contribute to a particular TV station. On the contrary, remaining silent in the face of one-sided pressure on PBS by the Turkish government would be going along with Turkey’s offensive efforts to bury or tarnish the truth.

There is no question that the truth about the Armenian Genocide would prevail in any confrontation with the deniers and liars. Since the panel discussion was pre-taped last week, we have been reliably informed that Professors Balakian and Akcam dealt a devastating blow to the baseless arguments of denialists McCarthy and Turan. But that is not the issue. The Turkish deniers win even when they do not win the debate. All they have to do is show up on a panel and make it appear to the unsuspecting American public that there are "two sides" to this "controversial" story! This is not simply an academic exercise. For those who think that a debate on the Armenian Genocide would help educate the Turkish public, we agree. The place to do that is on Turkish TV. There are plenty of Turkish scholars now who are very knowledgeable about the facts of the Armenian Genocide and can handily debate Turkish deniers in Turkey, if only the government would allow such a thing. However, there is no need for a debate on the veracity of the Armenian Genocide on American TV. There are no two sides to the genocide which is a well established fact confirmed by the overwhelming majority of genocide and holocaust scholars, scores of parliaments, international organizations, and the archives of many countries. It is grossly offensive to the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and their descendants that PBS would schedule a debate on April 17, just a few days before the 91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide!

Until PBS announces its decision to cancel the airing of the panel discussion after the broadcast of the Armenian Genocide documentary, I urge everyone to sign the petition currently circulated, http://www.PetitionOnline.com/pbspanel/petition.html. Clicking on this link would also reveal the names as well as the number of those who have already signed the petition. Also, send an e-mail to Jacoba Atlas, the Senior Vice President of PBS Programming, to protest her plans to air an offensive and unnecessary debate on the Armenian Genocide with the participation of notorious genocide deniers. Her e-mail address is: [email protected].

By Harut Sassounian; Publisher, The California Courier

http://www.azg.am/?lang=EN&num=2006021603

[maral_m79]

PBS Panel on Armenian Genocide Stirs Protest

PBS Panel on Armenian Genocide Stirs Protest
Broadcaster Defends Inclusion of Deniers of Mass Killing by Turks


By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 16, 2006; C01



Thousands of Armenian Americans are protesting the Public Broadcasting Service's planned panel-discussion program about Turkey's role in the deaths of Armenians during and after World War I.

The 25-minute program has generated an outcry because the panel will include two scholars who deny that 1.5 million Armenian civilians were killed in eastern Turkey from 1915 to 1920.

The program is scheduled to air April 17, a week before the annual Armenian Remembrance Day commemoration, and will follow a one-hour documentary, "The Armenian Genocide," which describes the events surrounding the deaths, as well as denials of complicity by successive Turkish governments.

Armenian Americans have publicized an online petition that asks PBS to drop the discussion program. As of last night, more than 6,000 people had electronically added their names to the petition, making it one of the largest organized protests of a PBS program.

"We strongly feel that debating the Armenian Genocide is akin to arguing about the Jewish Holocaust in order to project a sense of balance," the petition reads. "Would PBS ever contemplate such a program?" Noting that the film already includes Turkish denials, the petition concludes that the panel discussion "would serve to emphasize the Turkish state's official position and undermine the non-political nature of [PBS] programming."

The events surrounding the deaths of Armenians in Turkey by factions of the ruling Ottoman Empire remain emotionally charged and politically contentious. Armenians have long contended that the killings were government policy designed to suppress an Armenian uprising and Armenian support for invading Russian forces. Armenians also call it the 20th century's first genocide, a view that has gained acceptance among Western scholars and governments.

Successors to the Ottoman Turks have acknowledged that there were a substantial number of Armenian deaths -- Turkish estimates range from 300,000 to 600,000 -- but Turkey maintains that the deaths resulted from warfare, starvation and epidemics that affected all segments of Turkish society.

The controversy continues to resonate in Ankara and Washington. Turkish prosecutors last year indicted the country's best-known novelist, Orhan Pamuk, on charges of denigrating the country's national identity after he asserted, in an interview with a Swiss magazine, that Turkey was denying the extent of Armenian killings. His indictment became an issue with European countries that are considering Turkey's application to join the European Union; the charges were dropped this month.

For decades, U.S. administrations have dealt tentatively with the issue, not wishing to offend Turkey, a key political and military ally. In its Remembrance Day message last year, the Bush White House noted "the forced exile and mass killings" and "horrible loss of life" of Armenians but avoided referring to the events as genocide.

As the title implies, "The Armenian Genocide," a documentary by New York filmmaker Andrew Goldberg, is unequivocal in its take on history. PBS agreed to air the film -- whose $650,000 budget was partly funded by Armenian Americans -- without major changes, said Goldberg and Jacoba Atlas, a top PBS programming executive.

In the course of reviewing rough cuts of the film, however, Atlas said PBS officials agreed to add the panel discussion to explore other views, particularly the question of why denial exists. "It's a terrific documentary, and while we believe [the genocide] is settled history . . . you still get dissenters," she said in an interview yesterday. "We said, 'Let's approach this head-on and say why this is still contentious.' We thought it was a good thing to have both sides talking to each other. We felt the more you can shed light on an argument, the more the truth becomes clear."

"This remains a contentious piece of history," Atlas added. "There are just questions around it. Rather than have those questions dismissed, it seemed like a good idea to have a panel and let people have their say."

Atlas acknowledged that such an approach is rare for PBS and said that the Alexandria-based service has not had other panels to discuss opposing views of documentaries during her five-year tenure. She declined to say whether a documentary about the Holocaust or about the genocides in Rwanda or Cambodia would require a similar post-documentary discussion. "Those are hypothetical questions," she said.

The panel discussion, hosted by NPR's Scott Simon, was taped last week. Colgate professor Peter Balakian, an adviser on the documentary, and University of Minnesota professor Taner Akcam supported the film's view. University of Louisville professor Justin A. McCarthy and Turkish historian Omer Turan offered an alternative perspective.

Balakian, an Armenian American who wrote the best-selling "Tigris Burning: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response," said that he did not want to participate in a panel with "two bona fide deniers" but that he felt "backed into a corner" by PBS. If he had boycotted the panel, he said, it would have jeopardized the broadcast of the documentary, which Balakian called "a major and comprehensive piece of work."

Goldberg, the filmmaker, said he did not think the panel was necessary, "but I didn't fight it. It wasn't up to me and I had nothing to do with its production."

In an interview yesterday, McCarthy said the history of the period is complex and does not lend itself to simple judgments and labels. He said that he could not find evidence of 1.5 million Armenian deaths. He also said 3 million Turks died during the same period.

"If saying that both sides killed each other makes me a genocide denier, then I'm a denier," he said.

Titling the documentary "The Armenian Genocide," he said, "is a false description of a complicated history."

PBS said it is up to its 348 member stations to decide individually whether to air either the panel discussion or the documentary.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

[1.5 million]

I have very mixed opinions about this so-called "panal discussion" I agree with the protests against it - but at the same time I would welcome such a debate...however they need someone like Marshalian - who put McCarthy in his place in 1990 or some other fiery and persistent person to press McCarthy and deniers over and over to admit the facts of the eyewitnesses and other observers and participants and trial results and so on and so forth and we need someone technical enough and armed with facts concerning Turkish propoganda against Armenians before and during the war toplace it all into perspective and show that the Turks of today are just repeating the lies of their forefathers (much as Nazi denilaists do - and in fact comming prepare with a comparative denial chart would be illustrative). Anyway I'm not sure at all if Balikian or Ackam can handle it...they should have contacted me!

[Reincarnated Am]

Atlas acknowledged that such an approach is rare for PBS and said that the Alexandria-based service has not had other panels to discuss opposing views of documentaries during her five-year tenure. She declined to say whether a documentary about the Holocaust or about the genocides in Rwanda or Cambodia would require a similar post-documentary discussion. "Those are hypothetical questions," she said.

That's the best part of it

[1.5 million]

I'm very surprised that nobody caught this very extreme fallacy in the Washington Post article...

PBS Panel on Armenian Genocide Stirs Protest
Broadcaster Defends Inclusion of Deniers of Mass Killing by Turks

Armenians have long contended that the killings were government policy designed to suppress an Armenian uprising and Armenian support for invading Russian forces.

Somehow I can't seem to recall Armenians ever claiming that what the Turks were doing was supressing an uprising and that it was truly because of Armenians supporting Russia....these are the (distorted/exaggerated/untrue) Turkish (propoganda) claims...

[maral_m79]

Wow...

I signed like 5 days ago, there were like 350 sig.s ...
Some two days later, a friend signed, there was 1500 or so sig.s ....
but 9750 in one week is wow

[Tongue]

I hope it works. But I'm sure they received loads of money for broadcasting the debate, so they most probably won't cancel it.

[Hovik]

If it doesn't work there's only one thing to do - destroy and humiliate the denialists on public television with facts and physical evidence...

[Reincarnated Am]

Can you believe these low lifers?

Today

[Reincarnated Am]

Alright..!!! We’re back in business