9 replies to this topic

[roger]

PBS-TV (USA) AFFAIR & the REVISIONISTS

Please petition PBS against airing of the so-called
"Debate" Armenian Genocide Deniers.

Below is the text of the letter by r. Dickran
Abrahamian, the initiator of this petition campaign:

http://www.PetitionO...l/petition.html

Thank you to join to the thousands signatures

Jean ECKIAN (www.inhomage.com)

-----------

Dear Friend,

If you are against the debating of the Armenian
Genocide with Genocide deniers and giving deniers
equal air time, please sign the petition below which
is self explanatory. Could you please also send the
petition to people you know to obtain their
signatures?

In the section Name you may add your titles if you so
wish, and in the section Country you may indicate the
city and country and the server will accept.

Thank you,

Dikran J. Abrahamian BA, MD


The follwing articles were published in the February
10-17, 2006 issue of USA Armenian Life Magazine:

1) PBS Should Not Let Turkey Stifle
Honest Free Speech in USA
Through Dishonest, Fraudulent „free‰ Speech

By APPO K. JABARIAN
Executive Publisher & Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine
Hye Kiank Armenian Weekly


2) Boycott PBS Stations that Air
"Balancing" Panel on Genocide

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier





1) PBS Should Not Let Turkey Stifle
Honest Free Speech in USA
Through Dishonest, Fraudulent „free‰ Speech

Friday February 10, 2006

By APPO K. JABARIAN
Executive Publisher & Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine
Hye Kiank Armenian Weekly

Recently, it was learned that on April 17, PBS will
air „The Armenian Genocide‰, a documentary produced by
Andrew Goldberg‚s Two Cat Productions.

In addition to broadcasting the documentary, PBS is
said to be planning to air a 25-minute long panel
discussion that includes two genocide deniers.

It is widely believed that PBS may have given in on
Turkish denialist government‚s pressures.
Pro-truth and pro-justice activists in USA and around
the world, were alarmed by a strongly-worded opinion
column by world-renown political commentator Harut
Sassounian (Please see page E7).

In this writer‚s opinion the decision by PBS to air
the panel discussion is ill-devised. PBS should not
give in to the denialist Turkish government, and
worst, should not let Turkey stifle honest free speech
in USA through dishonest „free‰ speech. No speech is
free, when it is saddled by fraudulent comments made
by willful deniers who knowingly lie about the
historic facts of the 1915 Armenian Genocide that
continues to affect a whole nation.

As of Tuesday night, only a few hours after the
worldwide web-casting of Sassounian‚s column numerous
reactions began to come in. One such response is a
letter by Mr. Emil Sanamyan of Arlington, Virginia,
USA.

In his remarks to Ms. Atlas of PBS, Mr. Sanamyan
wrote: „I am an avid PBS viewer and supporter, living
in Arlington, VA. I am writing in regard to the
Armenian Genocide documentary which is due to air on
PBS on April 17. While I commend you for the decision
to carry this program, I object to the subsequent
panel discussion that includes unabashed deniers of
the Genocide.‰

He continued: „I hope you will drop this panel and let
the documentary, which incorporates a number of
diverse Turkish voices on this issue, to stand on its
own.‰

The political war between the righteous individuals,
organizations, and governments acknowledging the
1915-23 Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turks,
on the one side, and the denialists, on the other, has
been intensifying during the last decade.

Officialdom Turkey and its cronies have been waking up
from one nightmare to face yet new and even more
troubling nightmares in their desperate futile
attempts to cover up and/or deny the historic facts of
the Armenian Genocide.

The denialists seem to be especially troubled by
rising new waves of home-grown Turkish righteous
individuals like Halil Berktay, Orhan Pamuk, Taner
Akcam, Fatima Muge Gocek, Yigit Bener, Ahmet Altan,
Elif Shafak -to name afew- who have dared to cross the
denialist „rubicon‰ in clear defiance of their Turkish
denialist government.

Even more troubling for the Turkish denialists, is the
growing ranks of activists -regardless of their race,
color or religion- demanding the acknowledgment of a
crime that occurred 91 years ago.

Obviously, Mr. Ali Birand was more than correct in his
prediction that he had made nearly a year ago.

Mr. Birand, a Turkish commentator had predicted and
warned his readers that in 2005, on the occasion of
the 90th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide,
that an Armenian Tsunami may be flooding the
international arena, dealing the Turkish denialists a
serious blow.

With the way pro-truth and pro-justice activism is
progressing, Mr. Birand may surely predict unrelenting
political Hurricane Armenia not only in the days to
come in 2006, but in the years to follow, until such
time as the denialist Turks come to their senses and
acknowledge that, what is now called Turkey is
„built‰on the ashes of Western Armenia, and her 1.5
million martyrs.

______________________________



Boycott PBS Stations that Air
"Balancing" Panel on Genocide

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

PBS is planning to air immediately after the April 17
broadcast of Andrew Goldberg‚s "The Armenian Genocide"
documentary, a 25-minute long panel discussion that
includes two genocide deniers, Asbarez reported last
week.

Goldberg told this writer that he did not agree with
the PBS decision to hold a panel discussion on the
Armenian Genocide. "I don't believe such a panel is
necessary. I had absolutely nothing to do with it," he
said.

Prof. Fatma Muge Gocek, a Turkish American scholar who
opposes the Turkish government‚s denials of the
Armenian Genocide, explained to this writer why she
refused to be on the panel: "I felt that I had said
what I wanted to say in the documentary and I did not
understand what additional discussion was going to
contribute to it, other than give Justin McCarthy and
Omer Turan a chance to articulate the Turkish state
view. I see this as PBS politicizing the issue and
giving in to Turkish State pressure. It sets a bad
precedent and it is bound to be hailed as a victory by
the Turkish State and their nationalist Diaspora. I
would rather not have the documentary aired at all
under such conditions."

The panel discussion, pre-taped by PBS on Feb. 6,
included Prof. Peter Balakian (Colgate Univ., NY),
Prof. Taner Akcam (Univ. of Minnesota), Prof. Justin
McCarthy (Univ. of Louisville), and Prof. Omer Turan
(Middle East Technical Univ., Ankara). The moderator
was Scott Simon of NPR (National Public Radio).

Balakian is the author of "The Burning Tigris" and
"Black Dog of Fate." Akcam is a Turkish scholar who is
a staunch defender of the facts of the Armenian
Genocide. McCarthy and Turan are genocide deniers.

In a lengthy letter dated Nov. 28, 2005, Balakian
wrote to David Davis, the Vice President of National
TV Production at PBS, explaining why he strongly
objected to the post-documentary panel discussion.
Saying, "this would be a serious mistake for both
intellectual and ethical reasons," Balakian made the
following arguments:
"First, it seems to me that there is no need for it.
My understanding is that post-show discussions are
tagged on to documentaries that lack balance. The
Armenian Genocide documentary is well-balanced, and is
ground-breaking because there are more than a
half-dozen Turkish voices in the film -- both Turkish
scholars discussing the Armenian Genocide and some
Turkish voices denying it. If this were not the case,
I could see that there might be a reason to follow it
with a discussion about Turkish perspectives, but
here, at last, we have an extraordinary number of
Turkish voices already incorporated.

"Second, from a scholarly perspective, I think it‚s
important for PBS to understand that the Armenian
Genocide is not a controversial issue. What happened
to the Armenians in the last days of the Ottoman
Empire is genocide ˆ this is the mainstream consensus
worldwide<sum>.

"Third, I believe it is ethically wrong to privilege
deniers by giving their position equal weight. This is
the conclusion the New York Times, Boston Globe,
Chronicle of Higher Education and other media have
come to<sum>.

"Fourth, with all due respect to the pressures on PBS,
this is still the United States of America ˆ our
country and culture -- and our own Public Broadcasting
System. There is no reason why fear of protests by a
foreign government should inform our culture‚s
programming. In the struggle for truth in the face of
coercion and cover-up, it is vitally important for
distinguished institutions, particularly public ones,
to hold their ground in the face of Turkish government
intimidation. By giving Turkey additional airtime
following a fair documentary on the Armenian Genocide,
PBS in effect would be supporting Turkey‚s well-funded
denialist campaign."

I agree with all of Prof. Balakian‚s well-reasoned
arguments. Even though I am quite confident that
Balakian and Akcam could easily demolish McCarthy‚s
and Turan‚s baseless conjectures, I find it offensive
that PBS is providing to genocide revisionists a
platform from which they can spew their denialist
venom. As Prof. Gocek suggested earlier, this panel
discussion would create an unwelcome precedent for all
future programs on the Armenian Genocide.

Furthermore, the holding of such a panel is an insult
to both the victims as well as the survivors of the
Armenian Genocide. Since PBS executives would never
think of including neo-Nazis in a panel discussion
following the airing of a Holocaust documentary, why
would they do it in the case of an Armenian Genocide
documentary?

As I had stated in an earlier review, Goldberg‚s
documentary is already excessively fair and balanced.
It includes remarks by several Turkish revisionists.
There is no need to further balance it by adding more
denialists in a panel after the show.

I suggest that all those who disagree with the PBS
decision to provide a platform to genocide
revisionists take the following actions:

1. Send an e-mail to Jacoba Atlas, Senior Vice
President of PBS programming, asking her to cancel the
airing of the panel discussion. Her e-mail address is:
jatlas@pbs.org;
2. Contact your local PBS station and urge the
programming director not approve the airing of the
panel discussion (each station, independently of PBS,
decides whether or not to air this optional panel
discussion);
3. Advise your station manager that if he goes ahead
with the airing of the panel discussion, you would
neither watch nor financially support the station.
Furthermore, you would urge the station‚s corporate
and foundation sponsors to cease their support;
4. If no satisfactory action is taken by PBS, then
contact your Congressional representative, asking that
Congress cut back the funding to PBS because of its
insensitivity to viewers‚ concerns;
5. If the panel discussion is aired, whenever PBS
broadcasts a Turkey-related documentary in the future,
demand that a panel discussion be held after each show
to balance the Turkish propaganda.

All those who care about upholding the truth should
not allow PBS to question the veracity of the Armenian
Genocide under pressure from the Turkish government
and its hired guns.

[Fadix2]

I don't think McCarthy should be silenced, but on the other hand, from the list there is no one prepared to answer back. They should not cancel, they should only add to the list, Hilmar Kaiser. Hilmar Kaiser confrontational style will shut McCarthy up... find the founds necessary to bring Kaiser on the panel.

[ED]

PBS has gone from beeing a public TV station, into a public whore, and all these years I supported PBS
perhaps freedom of speach? reminds me of some thread in this forum where those qho advocate freedom of speach, what do they have to say now

Edited by Edward, 12 February 2006 - 03:36 PM.

[gamavor]

Edo, there is nothing wrong with freedom of speech. If the fact of the Genocide is presented as it is, any denialist rambling will serve an excelent case to point purpose, i.e. it will reveal to the viewrs the baseless and racist denialism. The denial of the Genocide after the movie will put the Turks in a VERY undesiarable situation.

It will just serve to the best of "The best turk is the dead turk"! You will see a semi-human sitting in front of a journalist trying to disprove the obvioius. What kind of person can do this - a Turk?

Lets PBS air the panel and let the viewrs made their minds.

[ED]

Gamo, that was my initial stand, and is, but! and sometimes freedom of so called speach is an lisance to be a whore!!!
i beg someone to explain me in layman turms, what the heck freedom of speach is,
when a whore like ann colter says "whats so wrong of killing you enamies"? regarding Rewandan Genocide
thats not freedom of speach, thats insainity covered under the umbrela of freedom of speach.


I'm thru with this freedom of speach shablon! enough!
now unlike jews, we should permit a debate on AG when over 20 countries and more then 30 US states passed and arecognised AG.

give me a break man

[Sasun]

My view is that lies should not be disseminated, even if it is part of a seemingly balanced debate. This is not about who will beat at the debate, that makes it like a game while it is not.

[gamavor]

when a whore like ann colter says "whats so wrong of killing you enamies"? regarding Rewandan Genocide

It eludes to very pervered thinking pretty common among Amorrocans.

[skhara]

My view is that lies should not be disseminated, even if it is part of a seemingly balanced debate. This is not about who will beat at the debate, that makes it like a game while it is not.

In my fantasy world, an all-truth-knowing being decsends to earth and destroys every lie, all the corruption, the hypocrasy, the two-facedness, the trecheary, the deceit. In reality, lies, manipulations, corruption, wealth, supremacy, power, personal-interests, greed, rule the day. I've have witnessed plenty of times that Armenians side with exactly that. And its not always knowingly, most often than not its with a self-righteous conviction -- does it matter? This is certainly not exclusive to Armenians, "everybody does it", and in this instance its done to us -- so you guys can complain -- for it hurts Armenian interests, well it propogates someone elses. And that's a truth. Do you care when its done to someone else? Would you care to even know about it? And know that some believe in lies, quite religiously, and someones lie is anothers truth and someones truth is anothers lie. So who can break these deadlocks? Scholars? Debaters? Politicians? Organisations? How about an all-truth-knowing being? This all-truth-knowing being can show those who side with lies and corruption the truth and if a lie remains the religion of certain individual even after being shown the truth than he/she/it should be able to put their childrens lives on it.

[Sasun]

In my fantasy world, an all-truth-knowing being decsends to earth and destroys every lie, all the corruption, the hypocrasy, the two-facedness, the trecheary, the deceit. In reality, lies, manipulations, corruption, wealth, supremacy, power, personal-interests, greed, rule the day. I've have witnessed plenty of times that Armenians side with exactly that. And its not always knowingly, most often than not its with a self-righteous conviction -- does it matter? This is certainly not exclusive to Armenians, "everybody does it", and in this instance its done to us -- so you guys can complain -- for it hurts Armenian interests, well it propogates someone elses. And that's a truth. Do you care when its done to someone else? Would you care to even know about it? And know that some believe in lies, quite religiously, and someones lie is anothers truth and someones truth is anothers lie. So who can break these deadlocks? Scholars? Debaters? Politicians? Organisations? How about an all-truth-knowing being? This all-truth-knowing being can show those who side with lies and corruption the truth and if a lie remains the religion of certain individual even after being shown the truth than he/she/it should be able to put their childrens lives on it.

Truth is truth, and untruth is untruth. I do not think there is any ambiguity though we may not do enough effort to know the truth... to keep it short, I say do your best to know the truth and stand by it.

Now regarding the question, we happen to know what the truth is and should not let lies be told.

[hytga]

americans are pretty uninformed in the subject, so they'll believe whatever pbs tells them. That includes the turkish "historians" that'll be having a concert after the movie. Unless their propoganda is given the proper response by known historians, they should not air the "dabate". But the very fact of airing the debate plays in turkish hands even if it's contested. Because they'll be questioning facts, and thus making the genocide debatable. And i doubht that in their search for 50/50 objectivity pbs will let any one of the sides to take over the other, even if they know that the armenian side is right.
Remember it's turk's goal to make the genocide debatable, just like they were attempting to do last year by holding a conference