TURKS CENSOR MARCH ISSUE OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Azg/am
25 Aug 04
The National Geographic popular magazine that is issued in America
included a 22 pages article entitled “Armenia Reborn” in its March
issue. This arose a wave of indignation in the Turkish circles,
Armenian Mirror Spectator weekly writes in its August 7 issue. Turkish
Government and Turkish Lobby attacked the weekly and its publishers
with letters that put under doubt the presented reality. Under this
pressure, “Armenia Reborn” article by Frank Viviano, representing the
Armenian history of 3000 years as well as the current events in
Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh conflict, was excluded from the Turkish
version of the periodical.
But, in honour of the editorship, we must estimate that the position
concerning the Armenian Genocide remained unchanged. In the July issue
of the magazine, in the “Forum” section, the editors characterized the
events of 1915 as “genocide” and stated that they received over 1600
letters on this matter, dwelling on the March issue dedicated to
Armenia. Not a single article received such evaluation during the last
five years. The magazine published the four of these letters,
including the letters by Hrair Hovnanian and Antony Parsamian, where
they state that the article reflected the true Armenian character and
the values cherished by the nation. In the course of the meeting in
Washington, Ros Vardian, Executive Director of Armenian Congress,
David Jenian, Head of Pr Department, and Ruben Adalian, Director of
“Ani” company thanked the editors of the magazine.
Besides, the article in the March issue of National Geographic, the
magazine published another large article on Armenians entitled “Proud
Armenians” in 1978.
By Hakob Tsulikian