ACCORDING TO TURKISH NEWSPAPER, 65% OF PBS STATIONS AIRED ROND TABLE
FOLLOWING DEMONSTRATION OF “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”
ISTANUL, APRIL 20, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The film “The
Armenian Genocide” of Andrew Goldberg was aired on April 17 by the
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Citing BBC Radio, the newspaper
“Marmara” (Istanbul) reported that over 348 TV stations aired
the film. Prior to the airing, it was announced that many Armenian
organizations and families have assited with the film making. According
to the one-hour film, the mass extermination of the Armenians in Turkey
started in the 1890s under Sultan Abdul Hamid. During their deportation
in 1915, the Armenians were killed on the orders and decison of the
central authorities. Such leaders of “The Young Turks” as Enver Pasha,
Taleat Pasha and Jemal Pasha were sentenced to death and pleaded guilty
to committing the genocide. It is noted that the Armenian massacres
are qualified as a genocide. Taner Akcham, of the Minnesota University
(US), Fatma Myuge Gochek, of Michigan University, historian Halil
Berktai express their opinions in the film, their position on the
issue of the Armenian Genocide differing from the official position
of the Turkish state. The documentary also features some ordinary
citizens of Istanbul and Eastern Anatolia, telling in Turkish or
Kurdish what they heard from their grandparents, undelining that,
to put it simply, these events were massacres. Some young Turks note
that there is no information about such a genocide in the history of
Turkey they know and that “the Turkish people is not the one to have
committed a genocide”. At the same time, the Turkish daily “Sabah”
reported in the April 18 issue that following the demonstration of
“The Armenian Genocide”, 65% of PBS TV stations aired a round table
with the participation of American Armenian scientist and writer
Piter Balakian and progressive Turkish intelelctual Taner Akcham,
from one side, and such deniers of the Armenian Genocide as Turkish
historian Omer Turan and American historain Justin McCarthy, from the
other. To recap, prior to it, tens of thousands of Armenians from the
US and many other countries called on PBS not to broadcast the round
table, pointing out that the Armenian Genocide is an established fact,
and the issue of whether it was committed indeed should not be made
a subject of debate.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
