ACTION ALERT: Turkey Censors Microsoft's Encarta

[Guest]

The following ANCA Action Alert is distributed by Armen-News mailing

list.

 

PROTEST TURKEY'S EFFORTS TO CENSOR MICROSOFT

ENCARTA'S ENTRY ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

 

-- Chronicle of Higher Education Reveals Official Turkish Threats

Against On-Line Encyclopedia for Refusing to Deny Armenian Genocide

 

Background: The Chronicle for Higher Education has revealed a

campaign by the Turkish government to pressure

Microsoft's on-line encyclopedia, Encarta, to deny

the Armenian Genocide.

 

In its August 18th edition, the Chronicle reports that

the Turkish government has threatened Microsoft with

serious reprisals unless any mention of the Armenian

Genocide is removed from its entry dealing with

Armenia, written by Ronald Grigor Suny, and its entry

on genocide, written by Helen Fein.

 

According to the article, in response to Turkey's

pressure, Microsoft approached both these authors to

rewrite their entries to cast doubt on the historical

facts of the Armenian Genocide. Both Mr. Suny and Ms.

Fein rejected these requests and have openly discussed

Turkey's pressure tactics with reporters from the

Chronicle.

 

The Chronicle article, written by Jeff Sharlet and

Scott Heller, also notes that Encarta's entry on

Turkey makes no mention of the Armenian Genocide. The

Chronicle is the nation's leading publication for the

academic community.

 

 

Action #1 Thank the Chronicle of Higher Education for

standing up against censorship by breaking this

important story

 

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Attention: Scott Jaschik, Editor

1255 Twenty-Third Street, NW

Washington, DC 20037

 

Tel: (202) 466-1000

Fax: (202) 452-1033

Email: mail@chronicle.com

 

Points: I am writing to thank you for taking a

powerful stand against censorship by

revealing the Turkish government's campaign

to pressure Microsoft Encarta to deny the

Armenian Genocide.

 

Your August 18th article "The Other Side of

Genocide" provided a valuable public service

by drawing the attention of academics and the

general public to Turkey's shameful efforts

to cover-up this crime against all humanity.

 

 

Action #2 Urge Microsoft Encarta to include the Armenian

Genocide in its entry on Turkey.

 

1) Go to http://encarta.msn.com/help/supportform.asp?src=7

 

2) Complete and submit the form

 

Points: I was troubled to learn in the August 18,

2000 edition of the Chronicle of Higher

Education that the Turkish government has

pressured Microsoft Encarta to censor its

documentation of the Armenian Genocide. I

encourage Encarta to resist these threats

aimed at denying this crime against all

humanity.

 

I also would like to recommend that Encarta

include the Armenian Genocide in its entry on

Turkey. Clearly, no account of Turkish

history can be complete without addressing

 

the Armenian Genocide and the systematic

destruction of the Greeks and other

Christians communities in the final years of

the Ottoman Empire.

 

[This message has been edited by MosJan (edited August 16, 2000).]

 

[This message has been edited by MosJan (edited August 17, 2000).]

[Guest]

1. Scholars Say Microsoft Encyclopedia Sought to Delete References to 'Genocide'

 

BY JEFF SHARLET, From the Journal of Higher Education

 

* Covering up genocide is a tricky business.

 

Probably the best place to start is with the word itself. Coined in 1944 to describe Nazi Germany's systematic murder of millions, it's

since been disputed in nearly every other usage, from the US government's early waffling on whether Rwanda's Hutu annihilation of the

Tutsis qualified, to the Turkish government's continuing campaign to convince the world that several hundred thousand starved Armenians

does not a genocide make.

 

That's where Microsoft's Encarta comes in.

 

Helen Fein, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, says the online encyclopedia almost helped deny the genocide.

 

In 1996, Encarta asked Ms. Fein to write an entry on genocide. Her short essay, which included a brief mention of the murder or

deportation of at least 1.1 million Armenians by the Turkish Ottoman government during World War I, was accepted and published.

 

But this past June, Encarta called Ms. Fein and asked her to revise her entry, in response to "customer complaints." She learned that

Ronald Grigor Suny, a political scientist at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, had been asked to

revise his entry on Armenia as well.

 

Ms. Fein says Encarta wanted her to include a few lines on the "other side of the story"--the Turkish government's side, that is. Mr. Suny

says an Encarta editor named Frank Manning explained to him that the revision would leave the facts in place, but remove the word

"genocide."

 

"Their proposed changes suggested that all narratives are equal, that we can't know for sure whether or not the Armenians brought the

massacres on themselves," says Ms. Fein.

 

According to Mr. Suny, Mr. Manning told him that the Turkish government had threatened to arrest local Microsoft officials and ban

Microsoft products unless the who, what, and why of the massacres were presented as topics open to debate.

 

Microsoft representatives would neither confirm nor deny the threats, but Namik Tan, a spokesman for the Turkish Embassy, calls the

charge "so ridiculous I cannot speak." He acknowledges that the embassy wrote at least two letters to Microsoft urging it to remove the

term "genocide" from the two entries, and to cite Armenian rebellion as the cause of any suffering, but he insists that the Turkish

government "does not make threats."

 

When Ms. Fein and Mr. Suny threatened to remove their names from the articles and to publicize Microsoft's censorship, however,

Encarta editors backed down. Ms. Fein and Mr. Suny agreed to add that the Turkish government denies the genocide, but held firm on

the facts of its occurrence.

 

When The Chronicle attempted to reach Encarta's editors, a publicist for the company said they were all on vacation. A second publicist

added that every story has two sides, even one about genocide.

 

Indeed. Ms. Fein notes that the Encarta entry on Turkey, which is unsigned, still doesn't mention the Armenian genocide at all.

[Guest]

TURKEY DEMANDS THAT MICROSOFT ENCARTA'S ENTRY ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BE

CENSORED

16.08.2000 13.46

16.08.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. The leading publication for the academic community of the USA, The

Chronicle for Higher Education, reports that the Turkish government pressures Microsoft's on-line

encyclopedia, Encarta (www.encarta.com), to remove all the records about the Armenian Genocide of

1915.

The Turkish government has demanded that any mention of the Armenian Genocide be removed from the

entry dealing with Armenia, written by Ronald Grigor Suny, and from the article on genocide, written by

Helen Fein.

According to the article, published in Chronicle, Microsoft approached both these authors to rewrite their

entries. Both Mr. Suny and Ms. Fein rejected these requests and have openly discussed Turkey's

pressure tactics with reporters from the Chronicle. -0-

[Guest]

I urge everybody to write to Encarta. It's easy, few clicks away. How to do it, is described in the first message. If Microsoft is so responsive to "customer complaints", let them get tons of complaints from all over the world.