By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
Armenians in the United States and Europe should launch a
coordinated campaign to ensure that Time magazine would never
again allow itself to be used as a tool for the dissemination of
Turkish lies on the Armenian Genocide.
The Ankara Chamber of Commerce had paid around $1 million
to place four full-page ads and a DVD in the June 6 issue of the
European edition of Time magazine which has a circulation of
around 500,000 copies.
The ad pages contain pictures of Greek and Armenian
historical sites in Turkey. The DVD insert, which comes in a
blank white wrapper and does not carry the mandatory
"advertising supplement" disclosure, contains a couple of short
ads on tourism and a 70-minute segment that includes dozens of
distortions and vicious lies about the Armenian Genocide.
It is very obvious that the real intent of the Ankara
Chamber of Commerce, and most probably that of the Turkish
government hiding behind it, was not so much to promote tourism
in Turkey, but to denigrate the Armenian Genocide.
This DVD, more aptly called a piece of hate mail, starts
with the following pompous declaration: "The most comprehensive
documentary serial ever made on the Armenian Question in the
history of [the] Turkish Republic." An indication of the extent
that the Turks have gone to distort the facts of the Armenian
Genocide is that they have prepared this DVD in seven languages:
English, French, Turkish, German, Spanish, Arabic and Russian.
The Turks claim to have conducted research in the archives of 11
countries, including Armenia. It is noteworthy that while the
Turkish Prime Minister keeps repeatedly saying that Armenia must
open its archives, Turkish filmmakers are inadvertently proving
him wrong by stating that they have access to the Armenian
archives!
There are so many lies in this DVD that one does not know
where to start. One would need to write an entire book to
expose all of the distortions in this 70-minute DVD.
The DVD accuses Armenians of committing genocide against
the Turks; collaborating with the Nazis; and distorting
documents, while the filmmakers themselves blatantly distort
just about every fact. The DVD blames the Kurds for the Armenian
killings, while claiming that Armenians were not killed. It
misidentifies not only historical sites, but also well-known
places, such as calling the Glendale City College, "University
of Glendale," and the Turkish Embassy in Paris, "the Turkish
Consulate." It calls Amb. Henry Morgenthau's documented reports
on the Armenian Genocide, "hearsay." It cunningly describes as a
"published letter" the paid ad against the Armenian Genocide by
some U.S. "scholars" who had received grants from the Institute
of Turkish Studies which was funded by the Turkish government.
It falsifies the interview of Kemal Ataturk published in the
August 1, 1926 issue of the Los Angeles Examiner in which he
admits that the Young Turks massacred millions of Christians in
the Ottoman Empire. It identifies Albert Amateau, a Jew, as an
Armenian who allegedly denies the Armenian Genocide. It wrongly
identifies an unknown interviewee as Prof. Radick Martirosyan,
the Rector of the Yerevan State University. It distorts the
words of French parliamentarian Francois Rochebloine who said
after viewing the DVD: "My words in there are taken out of
context. I did not recognize myself in the way I was presented."
It will not be surprising if the other interviews in the DVD are
also distorted.
Adding insult to injury, the narrator claims that Armenian
"women and children were to be carried by carriages" during the
deportations. It shamelessly states that "food was distributed,
shelter was provided and field hospitals which were established
by the [Ottoman] soldiers served on the way. Measures were taken
for security. The Ottoman state was allocating allowances for
those moving despite the dire financial situation of the state.
The state orders were that those who were subject to the
relocation law would be provided with housing immediately at
their destinations. In addition, if necessary, those people
would also be provided with food from the ration of the Ottoman
soldiers at war, they would be served hot meals and meat."
It is appalling that Time magazine would accept such a pack
of lies as paid advertising and then have the gall to say that
it is not responsible for its content. We are not talking here
about depriving the Turks of their right to express their
opinion. Rather, we are dealing with a clear case of false
advertising, hate mail (a hate crime), and fraud (representing
outright lies as facts).
Time's executives either knowingly accepted this fraudulent
DVD and turned a blind eye to its contents for the sake of
pocketing the $1 million ad revenue or they were negligent in
verifying its contents. In either case they have an obligation
to set the record straight and make amends. They should either
do this voluntarily or would be compelled to do so by a court of
law.
The Armenian community should ask Time magazine to:
1) Publish an apology for disseminating this fraudulent
DVD;
2) Issue a formal memo to all its divisions around the
world not to accept this DVD as an insert (the Ankara Chamber of
Commerce has announced its intention to place the same DVD in
Time's Asian and Pacific editions);
3) Issue a written warning to all its advertising
executives not to accept any more ads from Turkish entities that
deny the Armenian Genocide (just as they would not run an ad
that denies the Jewish Holocaust and glorifies Hitler; the New
York Times recently rejected an ad from Turkish organizations
denying the Armenian Genocide);
4) Destroy the extra 116,000 copies of this DVD that are
still in Time's possession;
5) Agree to insert and disseminate free of charge a DVD
prepared by a reputable research institute on the Armenian
Genocide;
6) Donate the payment it received from the Turkish Chamber
of Commerce for this ad to an Armenian charity.
Should Time reject the above demands, Armenians should
then:
1) Cancel their subscriptions and ads; and urge their
friends and business colleagues to do likewise;
2) File lawsuits in several European countries (France,
Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and Germany) where genocide denial
or making statements of racial hatred is against the law;
3) Issue a public appeal for funds to pay for the legal
costs of these lawsuits.
The most important issue is that Armenians should not
remain silent in the face of such an offensive ad. If they
ignore it, they would then be encouraging the Turks to place
similar offensive ads not only in other editions of Time, but
also in magazines around the world. It is somewhat fortunate
that the Turks chose to run this ad in the European edition of
Time. Since several European countries have laws banning such
hate mail, it makes it easy for Armenians to take legal action.
Armenians should take advantage of this unique opportunity and
make an example of Time magazine!