ANCA Calls on PBS Not to Provide National Television Platform for Armenian Genocide Deniers

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to cancel its plans this April to provide Armenian Genocide deniers a national television audience. In a February 14th letter to Jacoba Atlas, PBS's Co-Chief Program Executive, ANCA Board Member and Western U.S. Chairman Steve Dadaian voiced the profound opposition of the Armenian American community to PBS's intention to televise a panel discussion featuring two known Armenian Genocide deniers following the April 2005 broadcast of "The Armenian Genocide" by Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions. The two Genocide deniers are Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan. In the letter, Dadaian, noted that "the mere existence of Armenian Genocide deniers or, for that matter, Holocaust revisionists does not entitle these individuals to a place on our national stage alongside those who responsibly research and document these and other crimes against humanity." He added, "Consider, for example, the absurdity of following a broadcast of Schindler's List with a roundtable that includes Holocaust deniers." Commenting on the form letters that PBS has sent to concerned Armenian Americans over the past week, Dadaian welcomed the network's recognition that "the majority of historians, nations and news organizations recognize the Armenian Genocide," and pointed out that, "save for the Turkish government and its surrogates (Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan included), this crime is universally acknowledged and unanimously condemned by the international community." Several thousand individuals have already signed an on-line petition at www.PetitionOnline.com against PBS providing Armenian Genocide deniers a national television platform, reported the ANCA.