WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) today welcomed the initiative by the lead authors of the U.S. House Armenian Genocide Resolution, George Radanovich (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), to collect Congressional signatures on a letter expressing opposition to the Public Broadcasting Service’s (PBS) plans to provide a platform to deniers of the Armenian Genocide.

Amid tremendous controversy, PBS recently announced plans 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 thousands of individuals have already registered their protests. Additionally, over 12,000 protests have been sent to PBS through an online petition set up by Armenian Tidorts:
http://www.petitiononline.com/pbspanel/petition.html

The Glendale News Press today highlighted the ANCA’s leadership on this issue, and reported that, “Rep. Adam Schiff, who represents Glendale and Burbank, is eliciting the support of other members of Congress to come out in opposition. He was one of four Congressman to send out a message Wednesday asking counterparts to sign a letter, which they plan to send to PBS voicing concerns over the piece. ‘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 Congressmen’s letter to PBS reads. ‘We urge you to stand by PBS’ commitment to public service and not give voice to those who would deny the deliberate murder of 1.5 million people.'”

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.”

“We welcome the leadership of Representatives Schiff, Radanovich, Pallone, and Knollenberg in expressing Congressional opposition to PBS’s decision to provide public airtime to deniers of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We look forward to helping to generate bipartisan support for this letter and to pursuing other avenues to impress upon PBS that it should not become complicit in the Turkish government’s campaign to deny this crime against humanity.”

In a letter sent this week to their House colleagues, the four legislators sought support for a strong Congressional message urging PBS not to put its “imprimatur on those who deny the murder of 1.5 million people.” Noting that, “unfortunately, PBS has included on the panel two professors who deny the Armenian Genocide,” the four Congressman noted that, “their opinions run counter to the vast majority of academicians who have examined the events of 1915-23 and are no more credible than the assertions of those who deny the Holocaust.”

The Congressional letter, addressed to PBS’s Acting President and Chief Operating Officer, Wayne Godwin, specifically asks 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 closes 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.”

Dear Colleague:

On April 17, PBS will be broadcasting a new documentary on the Armenian Genocide. The documentary, by filmmaker Andrew Goldberg, is scheduled to be followed by a panel discussion that PBS has prepared in house.

Unfortunately, PBS has included on the panel two professors who deny the Armenian Genocide. Their opinions run counter to the vast majority of academicians who have examined the events of 1915-23 and are no more credible than the assertions of those who deny the Holocaust.

While we support a thorough airing of opinions about the Armenian Genocide, the documentary already includes denialist views to present a comprehensive perspective. It is therefore completely unnecessary to include these discredited opinions in an additional panel. Doing so only promotes the propagation of false and misleading views and undermines the credibility of PBS.

We have prepared a letter to Wayne Godwin, PBS’s Acting President and Chief Operating Officer and ask that you join us in asking him to re-tape or eliminate the panel altogether so as not to put PBS’s imprimatur on those who deny the murder of 1.5 million people.

To sign the letter, please contact Timothy Bergreen in Rep. Adam Schiff’s office.

Sincerely,

[signed]
Adam B. Schiff
Member of Congress

[signed]
Frank Pallone
Member of Congress

[signed]
George Radanovich
Member of Congress

[signed]
Joe Knollenberg
Member of Congress

Mr. Wayne Godwin
Acting President and Chief Operating Officer
Public Broadcasting Service
1320 Braddock Place
Alexandria, VA 22314

Dear. Mr. Godwin:

We are writing to ask that PBS not provide a national platform to those who deny the Armenian Genocide. While we look forward to PBS’ broadcast of Andrew Goldberg’s documentary, The Armenian Genocide, on April 17th, we are disturbed by reports that PBS will follow the documentary with a panel discussion that will include two professors 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. Thousands of pages of documents sit in our National Archives. Newspapers were replete with stories about the murder of Armenians. “Appeal to Turkey to Stop Massacres” headlined the New York Times on April 28, 1915, just as the killing began. On October 7 of that year, the Times reported that 800,000 Armenians had “been slain in cold blood in Asia Minor.” In mid-December of 1915, the Times spoke of a “Million Armenians Killed or in Exile.”

Prominent citizens of the day, including America’s Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, and Britain’s Lord Bryce reported on the massacres in great detail. Morgenthau was appalled at what he would later call the “sadistic orgies” of rape, torture and murder. Lord Bryce, a former British Ambassador to the United States, worked to raise awareness of and money for the victims of what he called “the most colossal crime in the history of the world.” In October 1915 the Rockefeller Foundation contributed $30,000 – a sum worth more than half a million dollars today – to a relief fund for Armenia.

Despite this overwhelming documentary and eye-witness proof of the Armenian Genocide, Goldberg’s documentary includes denialist views to present a comprehensive perspective. It is therefore completely unnecessary to include these discredited opinions in your panel; doing so only promotes the propagation of false and misleading views and undermines the credibility of PBS.

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 urge you to stand by PBS’ commitment to public service and not give voice to those who would deny the deliberate murder of 1.5 million people. We ask that you that you reconsider the decision to include genocide deniers on your panel and that the panel either be re-taped without them or eliminated altogether.

Sincerely,