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| PBS Panel on Armenian Genocide Stirs Protest | |
| 2006-02-16 | |
| 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. A scene from the one-hour documentary "The Armenian Genocide," which is scheduled to air on PBS in April. A panel discussion is to follow the program. 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. 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."
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." 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. | |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #2 At this juncture, the American people offer a reminder that we are strong supporters of the inclusion of Turkey into the European Union. Free migration into Europe, of adherents of the noble faith of Islam, will challenge the perverse Secularism that corrupts values. Further, if Turks flood Europe, then enforcement of the religion of peace's blasphemy laws - which we firmly support, and endorse - will be enhanced. In conclusion, Muslim based anti-Secularism will diminish the influences of Atheism and Communism, which are the real threats to American peace and security. And at this point, we offer a second reminder: the American people opposed the anti-hijab policy of France, and support the total integration of Muslims into all aspects of life in Western Civilization. That includes: curriculum creation at our schools; participation in our security intelligence institutions; security clearances in our defense industrial establishments, etc. Freedom for Muslims means peace and security for Americans. And if you disagree with the above and we find you, thn we will intern you in a concentration camp, for re-education, inshAllah (God-Willing). |
| Posted by: State Department 2006-02-16 15:48 |
| #1 What's the problem? The Armenian holocaust is well documented. Any Turkish deniers will come across as just that. Fer crimeney sakes, Hitler made direct references to the slaughter while planning for his own bit of handiwork. In preparation for the impending invasion of Poland, Hitler stated to Reichmarshal Hermann Goering and the commanding generals at Obersalzberg...   "Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter - with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It's a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me.   I have issued the command - and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad - that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness - for the present only in the East - with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" http://www.teachgenocide.org/bkgrnd/hitler.htm |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-16 13:31 |