ARMENIAN AMERICANS DISPLEASED WITH CNN PROGRAM THAT MENTIONED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN PASSING
Noyan Tapan
Dec 11, 2008
WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 11, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. A CNN program
on genocides has caused discontent among Armenian Americans. They
complain that in this almost 2-hour program, the episode on the
Armenian Genocide lasted less than a minute. On the initiative of the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the Armenian community
has sent letters of protest to the CNN management, accusing it of
ignoring the fact of the Armenian Genocide.
According to Marmara, the program prepared by famous journalist
Christiane Amanpour presented such genocides as the Holocaust, the
genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur as well as that
organized by Saddam Hussein against the people in Iraq.
The Armenians were also mentioned in a short episode at the begging
of the program. It was said that from 1915, the Christian Armenians
were subjected to massacres and forced deportation for seven years
in the Ottoman Empire, as a result of which a million of Armenians,
including children, women and elderly people, died. It was also
mentioned that Turkey refuses to recognize these events as genocide.
Turkish newspaper Huriet in its turn reported that the above mentioned
program caused disconent of not only Armenians but also Turks due to
its comments on the 1915 events.