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04/06/2006
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1) Thirty US Representatives Urge PBS Not to Provide Platform for Armenian
Genocide Deniers
2) Turkey Renews Support for Azerbaijan in Karabagh Conflict
3) US Realizes Importance of Maintaining Aid Parity between Armenia And
Azerbaijan
4) Azerbaijan Again Violates Ceasefire During Monitoring
1) Thirty US Representatives Urge PBS Not to Provide Platform for Armenian
Genocide Deniers
WASHINGTON, DC–Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) was joined by Representative
George Radanovich (R-CA), Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank
Pallone
(D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), and a bipartisan group of twenty-six US
Representatives in urging the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) not to provide
a broadcast platform for deniers of the Armenian genocide, reported the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
In an April 3 letter, addressed to PBS Chief Operating Officer Wayne Godwin,
the House Members addressed the growing controversy surrounding plans by
PBS to
broadcast a panel discussion including known Armenian genocide deniers Justin
McCarthy and Omer Turan following the airing this April of the documentary
“The
Armenian Genocide,” produced by Andrew Goldberg. The ANCA has formally
protested PBS’s decision, and established an online WebFax program through
which close to 10,000 individuals have already registered their protests.
In their letter, the group of legislators urged that, “PBS not provide a
national platform to those who deny the Armenian genocide… Despite the
Turkish government’s concerted and well-financed effort to obscure and alter
history, there is no serious academic dispute about the Armenian genocide.”
The
letter closed by noting that, “Surely, PBS would not consider broadcasting a
documentary on the Holocaust, followed by a panel that included Holocaust
deniers. A commitment to balance does not mandate the inclusion of opinions
that are objectively false.”
“We want to thank Representatives Schiff, Radanovich, Pallone, and
Knollenberg
for their leadership in giving voice to the growing Congressional
opposition to
PBS’s deeply flawed decision to provide public airtime to deniers of the
Armenian genocide,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Clearly
their
concerns are being heard, as more and more PBS affiliates are deciding not to
run this panel discussion.”
The full list of signatories is as follows: Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Shelley
Berkley (D-NV), Jerry Costello (D-IL), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Bob Filner (D-CA),
Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Steve Israel
(D-NY), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Carolyn Maloney
(D-NY),
James McGovern (D-MA), Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Michael McNulty (D-NY),
Richard
Neal (D-MA), C. L. Butch Otter (R-ID), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Donald Payne
(D-NJ), Collin Peterson (D-MN), George Radanovich (R-CA), Steven Rothman
(D-NJ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Joe Schwarz (R-MI), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Mark
Souder (R-IN), John Sweeney (R-NY), Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Diane Watson
(D-CA),
and Anthony Weiner (D-NY).
In addition to the signatories of this letter, a number of other legislators
undertook individual efforts directly with PBS. Among these were Senator Boxer
(D-CA), who shared her concerns with San Francisco’s KQED, which recently
decided not to air the denial panel. Senator John Ensign (D-CA), the author of
the Senate version of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (SR 320), similarly
urged Las Vegas PBS affiliate KLVX not to air the panel, stressing that, “to
air this or any other denial would only serve to condone [the Turkish
government’s] denial and to ignore the reality of those atrocious acts that
were responsible for the loss of one and half million lives and for more than
half a million survivors being exiled.”
On the House side, individual letters were sent by Representative Zoe Lofgren
(D-CA) and James Langevin (D-RI). In her letter, Representative Lofgren
expressed hope that “PBS will evaluate this planned programming using the same
standard it would employ if deniers were discussing either [the Armenian or
Jewish] Holocaust.” Representative Langevin noted that, “I imagine that those
who deny the existence of the Holocaust would not be offered the same
chance to
air their views, and I question why the Armenian genocide appears to be
held to
a different standard.”
On April 4, Representative Schiff hosted a Capitol Hill screening of the PBS
documentary, “The Armenian Genocide,” to a standing-room only audience of
Members of Congress, Congressional staffers, members of the media, and
Armenian
American community activists. Representative Schiff was joined by
Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Representative Pallone in offering remarks
at the opening of the documentary, while director Andrew Goldberg led an
insightful question and answer session at the conclusion of the piece. Among
those in attendance were His Excellency Tatoul Markarian, Ambassador of the
Republic of Armenia to the US accompanied by Embassy staff, as well as former
US Ambassador to Armenia Michael Lemmon, and Pulitzer Prize winning author
Samantha Power.
On March 29, Representative Pallone delivered a House floor speech urging PBS
not to air the panel discussion, arguing that he “would not feel any different
about this issue if we were discussing Darfur, Rwanda or the Nazi Holocaust.
Genocide deniers should not have a forum. The quest for fair and balanced
information does not give a license to propagate false, misleading, and
offensive information about historical facts that relate to genocide.”
The Washington Post reported on February 16th that, “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.”
2) Turkey Renews Support for Azerbaijan in Karabagh Conflict
(AFP)–Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Tuesday renewed his country’s
support for Azerbaijan in its territorial dispute with Armenia.
The dispute over the ethnic Armenian Karabagh “should be resolved within the
framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” Sezer told reporters
after meeting his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev. This is “in line with
international norms,” Sezer added.
President Aliyev expressed gratitude for Sezer’s position on Karabagh and
support rendered to Azerbaijan in the settlement of the conflict.
Sezer was speaking at a news conference during a two-day official visit to
Baku, which focused on bilateral relations, regional and international
projects, and other matters of mutual interest.
During the meeting, he lauded economic ties with the booming Caspian Sea oil
economy, saying total trade volume would hit $1 billion in 2006.
Both Turkey and Azerbaijan have severed ties with Armenia, closing borders
and
imposing an economic blockade on Yerevan as a result of the Karabagh dispute.
Ankara is under European Union pressure to normalize ties with Armenia but
worries that reconciliatory moves sought by the bloc may damage its alliance
with Azerbaijan.
Turkish-Armenian ties have also been strained by Yerevan’s demands that
Turkey
recognize the Armenian genocide.
3) US Realizes Importance of Maintaining Aid Parity between Armenia And
Azerbaijan
YEREVAN (PanArmenian.Net)–Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the US
realizes the importance of maintaining aid parity between Armenia and
Azerbaijan, but providing more military aid to Azerbaijan than Armenia is
offset by the fact that Armenia received a grant through the Millennium
Challenge Account, while Azerbaijan did not.
“This is a matter of individual needs and demands, however we remember it is
necessary to keep parity. We now work with both parties,” said Rice.
Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair, Representative Joe Knollenberg
(R-MI),
pointed out to Secretary Rice that, because of the Karabagh conflict, Armenia
and Azerbaijan preferred that the parties be treated in the same manner.
In response, Rice said “parity cannot be kept for the sake of parity, one
should try to establish normal relations between the parties and help them.”
Rice added that, “Azerbaijan is not ready to take part in the Millennium
Challenge Account now and we would not like Armenia to have an upper hand in
the issue. The slight difference in the assistance to the two states can be
endured.”
The US budget for fiscal year 2007 allocates $4.5 million to Azerbaijan and
$3.5 million to Armenia in military assistance.
Providing more military aid to Azerbaijan goes against the agreement struck
between the White House and Congress in 2001 to maintain parity in US military
aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. This informal agreement was reached when
President Clinton was allowed to waive previous legislation prohibiting any
military aid to Azerbaijan.
4) Azerbaijan Again Violates Ceasefire During Monitoring
YEREVAN (Armenpress)–Azerbaijan once again violated ceasefire Thursday when
shots were reported during a routine radio-monitoring along the Armenian-Azeri
border near the Ijevan-Ghazakh region.
Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Seyran Shahsuvarian said that during the
monitoring, communication was established with the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) representatives conducting the monitoring on
the Azeri side. Shots were then registered from the Azeri side.
Although ceasefire violations have occurred sporadically since the 1994 cease
fire, they have become more frequent in recent weeks amid more aggressive war
rhetoric from Baku.
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