FLORENCE AVAKIAN DISCUSSES THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ON AL JAZEERA TELEVISION
By Harry Koundakjian
AZG Armenian Daily
13/02/2008
Armenian Genocide
UNITED NATIONS, NY – Florence Avakian, an accredited United Nations
journalist, and free lance writer based in New York, recently was
interviewed on Al Jazeera television which has a worldwide audience
of over 70 million. The interview which took place at United Nations
headquarters in New York, focused on the Armenian Genocide, and its
prospects for recognition by the United States Congress.
She emphasized that the issue was one of moral and human rights,
and should not be compromised because of political expediency. This
first genocide of the 20th century was a catalyst in persuading Rafael
Lemkin to call the mass slaughter of a people a "genocide", she said.
Ms. Avakian pointed out that early United States administrations
had recognized the magnitude of the Armenian tragedy perpetrated by
Ottoman Turkey, and that The New York Times during that period, had
run front page articles about the horrific events. This accentuated
the plight of the refugees, and resulted in American efforts to help
the survivors. Even Hitler, she reiterated, had chillingly stated,
"Who remembers the extermination of the Armenians", before he started
his own plan.
When asked about Turkey’s intention to close the American base in
Turkey, as well as other such threats, she said the issue must not be
one of "callous political expediency", As an influential world power,
the United States should stand up as a beacon of justice. Even today,
the world is seeing genocides and ethnic cleansing continue, with
virtually no action taken to prevent them, a precursor to future
genocides, she noted.
With huge military and industrial corporations joining the
well-financed Turkish lobby and the Bush administration to stop the
Genocide bill, several members of Congress caved in, causing the bill
to be tabled indefinitely, she pointed out.
While a freshman student at Hunter College High School in New York,
Ms. Avakian had represented her school on the NBC television series
"The New York Times Youth Forum" on the topic of genocide. At that
time, she was privileged to meet Rafael Lemkin who was the moderator
of the program.
Florence Avakian received a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Political
Science on a Falk Fellowship at Michigan State University. She was
also awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship
in Journalism to Cornell University, and an English Union Speaking
Fellowship to Oxford University in England.
At the United Nations, she has interviewed several world leaders
including India’s Indira Gandhi, Georgia’s President Edward
Schevardnadze, Turkey’s President Bulent Ecevit, and Cypriot Presidents
Archbishop Makarios, Glafkos Clerides, and Spyros Kyprianou, among
others. She is a regular member of the United Nations Correspondents
Association (UNCA).
In the last several years, Ms. Avakian has had her Op Ed articles
on the Armenian Genocide and Armenian issues published in The New
York Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco
Chronicle, Los Angeles Examiner, Baltimore Sun, and the Hearst Feature
Service Ms. Avakian is a frequent contributor to The Armenian Reporter,
and to Ararat Magazine. She is also the news reporter in English
every week on the Armenian Radio Hour of New Jersey.