International Association of Genocide Scholars
Robert Melson, President
Department of Political Science
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907

NEW YORK TIMES CHANGES POLICY ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

The New York Times has recently revised its guidelines for editors
regarding the Armenian genocide. The new policy notes, `After careful
study of scholarly definitions of `genocide,’ we have decided to accept
the term in references to the Turks’ mass destruction of Armenians in
and around 1915.’ The guidelines continue, `The expression `Armenian
genocide’ may be used freely and should not be qualified with phrasing
like `what Armenians call,’ etc.’

The Times’ new guidelines state that: `By most historical accounts, the
Ottoman empire killed /more than one million/ Armenians in a campaign of
death and mass deportation aimed at eliminating the Armenian population
throughout what is now Turkey.’

The memo notes, `While we may of course report Turkish denials on those
occasions when they are relevant, we should /not/ couple them with the
historians’ findings, as if they had equal weight.’

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For more information contact: Peter Balakian <pbalakian@mail.colgate.edu>
Robert Melson <melson@polsci.purdue.edu> or
Samantha Power <Samantha_Power@ksg.harvard.edu>