ISTANUL, APRIL 20, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. The film "The Armenian Genocide" of Andrew Goldberg was aired on April 17 by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Citing BBC Radio, the newspaper "Marmara" (Istanbul) reported that over 348 TV stations aired the film. Prior to the airing, it was announced that many Armenian organizations and families have assited with the film making. According to the one-hour film, the mass extermination of the Armenians in Turkey started in the 1890s under Sultan Abdul Hamid. During their deportation in 1915, the Armenians were killed on the orders and decison of the central authorities. Such leaders of "The Young Turks" as Enver Pasha, Taleat Pasha and Jemal Pasha were sentenced to death and pleaded guilty to committing the genocide. It is noted that the Armenian massacres are qualified as a genocide. Taner Akcham, of the Minnesota University (US), Fatma Myuge Gochek, of Michigan University, historian Halil Berktai express their opinions in the film, their position on the issue of the Armenian Genocide differing from the official position of the Turkish state. The documentary also features some ordinary citizens of Istanbul and Eastern Anatolia, telling in Turkish or Kurdish what they heard from their grandparents, undelining that, to put it simply, these events were massacres. Some young Turks note that there is no information about such a genocide in the history of Turkey they know and that "the Turkish people is not the one to have committed a genocide". At the same time, the Turkish daily "Sabah" reported in the April 18 issue that following the demonstration of "The Armenian Genocide", 65% of PBS TV stations aired a round table with the participation of American Armenian scientist and writer Piter Balakian and progressive Turkish intelelctual Taner Akcham, from one side, and such deniers of the Armenian Genocide as Turkish historian Omer Turan and American historain Justin McCarthy, from the other. To recap, prior to it, tens of thousands of Armenians from the US and many other countries called on PBS not to broadcast the round table, pointing out that the Armenian Genocide is an established fact, and the issue of whether it was committed indeed should not be made a subject of debate.

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