WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has welcomed TIME Magazine’s newly announced policy of properly characterizing the Armenian Genocide as clear instance of genocide, as well as a series of other moves taken by this leading international newsweekly to atone for its mistaken distribution, in June of 2005, of a DVD denying this crime against humanity.

TIME’s actions come in the wake of an amicable agreement reached between the publication and the ANCA’s Brussels-based European affiliate – the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD), along with the Armenian National Committee of France (CDCA), the California Courier, and a range of leading community and human rights organizations.

“We welcome TIME Magazine’s judgment that – in the interest of its readers’ right to accurate reporting – the Armenian Genocide should be reported as a fact, without qualification,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “This announcement by TIME, along with similar policy statements by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and many other leading publications, only increases the pressure on the Administration to abandon its morally bankrupt complicity in the Turkish government’s denial of its crime against the Armenian nation.”

The Feb. 12, 2007 issue of the European edition of TIME magazine – available in newsstands throughout Europe as of Feb. 2nd – carries a full-page factual announcement on the Armenian Genocide, along with a complimentary DVD, in English and French, which contains a compelling 52-minute documentary on the Armenian Genocide by French director Laurence Jourdan. The DVD also includes a 46-minute interview with Dr. Yves Ternon, a leading expert on the Armenian Genocide.

Both the DVD and the full-page ad were provided free of charge by TIME Europe (circulation 550,000) after realizing that its staff, without proper review, had inserted in the June 6, 2005 issue of TIME Europe a Turkish DVD as a paid advertisement under the guise of promoting tourism to Turkey. The Turkish DVD, paid for by the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, was a deceitful attempt to spread malicious lies and denialist propaganda on the Armenian Genocide.

To correct this error, TIME (Europe) published, in its October 17, 2005 issue, a critical page-long letter to the editor jointly signed by the following five French organizations: Memoire 2000, the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF), Comité de Defense de la Cause Armenienne (CDCA) — ANC France, J’Accuse, and the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples (MRAP). In an Editor’s note appended to the letter, TIME apologized for disseminating the Turkish DVD.

In December 2005, these five organizations along with the Switzerland-Armenia Association (SAA), the French Association of Armenian Lawyers and Jurists (AFAJA), the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD), and The California Courier newspaper reached an amicable agreement with TIME executives ensuring that the facts of the Armenian Genocide are not distorted again in the pages of the magazine.

Subsequently, Michael Elliott, the Editor of TIME International, issued the following public statement, in a letter addressed to California Courier publisher Harut Sassounian: “Please be advised that, in common with other leading news organizations, it is TIME’s policy and practice to refer to the Armenian genocide as a historical fact. Accordingly, I will be informing our correspondents and editors that the term ‘Armenian genocide’ should be used without qualification.”