JTW Condemns The California Courier Publisher Harut Sassounian

Source: JTW Press Release
Press Release, 9 August 2005

As Journal of Turkish Weekly (JTW) we have been making constructive
publishing on Armenian issue. We have argued that Turkey and Armenia
could be very close partners even allies in the Caucasus. We defended
that the diaspora should be more positive in solving historical
disputes. The JTW has always supported dialogue between Turks and
Armenians. Naturally we have Turkish perspective in comments though we
also publish the other approaches in JTW. The problem is that some of
the ultra extremist Armenians in diaspora cannot bear different ideas
and they blame differences of being lies. We named this Armenian
approach as “shut-up and accept it” approach. Armenian extremist
groups do not want to listen, do not want to discuss, but they just
impose their ideas as truth.

Two days ago JTW published a news titled “Swiss Senate: ‘Genocide’
Allegations is Not Parliament’s Job”. As expected many Armenians did
not share the ideas in the news. Actually it was compiled news and was
reporting Peter Briner’s latest declaration about the Armenian
issue. According to the news reported by Swiss news sources and JTW
Briner said other countries had no business pointing the finger at
Turkey 90 years after the disputed events. Having published the news
we received a letter from Maral Der Ohanesian. We thanked her and
replied our point of view. We exchanged two letters on the report. But
then we received a really rude letter from Harut Sassounian, publisher
of The California Courier, instead of Mrs Maral. It is unfortunate
that Mr. Sassounian’s letter was full of insults. We as the JTW
condemn Harut Sassounian, and we remind him that JTW and our editor
will use all the legal rights regarding the insults. The JTW will
start a legal action in California against this rude letter. However
we consider his letter as a good example to show the extremist
Armenian approach to our readers. Therefore we added his letter below
so all Turks and Armenians could assess how he is constructive and
polite.

Sassounian’s ‘letter’ made us sad. Nevertheless we know that all
Armenians are not the same and we, Turks and Armenians, can find a
base to construct a dialogue environment.

—————–
SASSOUNIAN’S ‘LETTER’
——————-
Sir:

I don’t know what your background or training is, but I am sure you
know nothing about journalism. Your replies to Maral Der Ohanesian
confirm my suspicions about your ignorance. How dare you give a
lecture to her on a subject you know nothing about? Not only your
distorted and perverted version of this news item was full of lies,
every piece of news you have released has been nothing but a pack of
lies. I will be happy to give you one free lesson in journalism: there
is no such thing as Armenian or Turkish journalism. There is only one
kind of universal journalism, which is reporting the truth. What you
added to the … news is not the Turkish point of view, but sheer
lies. Maybe lies ARE the Turkish point of view, in which case you have
a point. I would normally list the lies in your news, but I am sure
you do not need my help, since you know the lies that you have made
up. To report such lies and try to convince others that you are
reporting the truth, you must be truly “sharafsiz”! (*) And you
shamelessly call yourself “Editor” and “Dr.”

Harut Sassounian
Publisher
The California Courier

(*) ‘sharafsiz’ is a Turkish word and it means one who has no honor)

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