Armenia, Revisited - Amid Protests, PBS Slates Film and Panel Show
April 14, 2006
WSI - Page W2
[...]
On Monday, the public broadcasting network will air "The Armenian Genocide," a one-hour documentary that details both the horrors of that ethnic-cleansing campaign and the Turkish government's efforts to deny that what occurred qualifies as genocide. Narrated in somber tones by celebrities such as Juliana Margulies, Ed Harris and Natalie Portman, the film presents evidence that the slaughters were planned centrally, including letters from U.S. government officials and others who witnessed parts of the campaign. They describe forced deportations, during which many Armenians were killed or died, and government death squads that mopped up stragglers.
The film includes some of the first statements from Turkey-based academics agreeing that the genocide occurred, as well as oral histories from Turkish people who recall their own families' involvement. "There is something my grandfather did personally," one man, filmed on a Turkish street, says. "They caught Armenians and put them in a barn and burned them. My grandfather says their voices didn't leave his ears for years." (According to many scholars, more than one million Armenians died in that period, though Ankara says the toll was much lower.)
In Turkey, one of the professors involved in the film says he faced death threats when he spoke out in a Turkish newspaper about the genocide. In the U.S., the topic rouses passions as well. Filmmaker Andrew Goldberg, fearing a partisan protest, says he has hired off-duty police officers for added security for Monday's premiere of the documentary in a Los Angeles movie theater. Meanwhile, a separate discussion panel that PBS commissioned to run after the documentary is causing an outcry among pro-Armenian groups because it includes two academics who reject the label "genocide." PBS says it has received more than 8,600 letters and phone calls opposing the broadcast.
While the documentary itself will be accessible to about 93% of U.S. television households, most major PBS affiliates in the top 20 TV markets aren't airing the panel show. That program will nevertheless reach about 58% of U.S. households through smaller PBS affiliates. A spokeswoman for WGBH in Boston, which is among the channels not airing the panel, says the station felt the documentary "stood on its own." ("The Armenian Genocide" airs in most markets on Monday, 10 p.m. EDT; check local listings)
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
WSI - Page W2
[...]
On Monday, the public broadcasting network will air "The Armenian Genocide," a one-hour documentary that details both the horrors of that ethnic-cleansing campaign and the Turkish government's efforts to deny that what occurred qualifies as genocide. Narrated in somber tones by celebrities such as Juliana Margulies, Ed Harris and Natalie Portman, the film presents evidence that the slaughters were planned centrally, including letters from U.S. government officials and others who witnessed parts of the campaign. They describe forced deportations, during which many Armenians were killed or died, and government death squads that mopped up stragglers.
The film includes some of the first statements from Turkey-based academics agreeing that the genocide occurred, as well as oral histories from Turkish people who recall their own families' involvement. "There is something my grandfather did personally," one man, filmed on a Turkish street, says. "They caught Armenians and put them in a barn and burned them. My grandfather says their voices didn't leave his ears for years." (According to many scholars, more than one million Armenians died in that period, though Ankara says the toll was much lower.)
In Turkey, one of the professors involved in the film says he faced death threats when he spoke out in a Turkish newspaper about the genocide. In the U.S., the topic rouses passions as well. Filmmaker Andrew Goldberg, fearing a partisan protest, says he has hired off-duty police officers for added security for Monday's premiere of the documentary in a Los Angeles movie theater. Meanwhile, a separate discussion panel that PBS commissioned to run after the documentary is causing an outcry among pro-Armenian groups because it includes two academics who reject the label "genocide." PBS says it has received more than 8,600 letters and phone calls opposing the broadcast.
While the documentary itself will be accessible to about 93% of U.S. television households, most major PBS affiliates in the top 20 TV markets aren't airing the panel show. That program will nevertheless reach about 58% of U.S. households through smaller PBS affiliates. A spokeswoman for WGBH in Boston, which is among the channels not airing the panel, says the station felt the documentary "stood on its own." ("The Armenian Genocide" airs in most markets on Monday, 10 p.m. EDT; check local listings)
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 3:05 PM
1 Comments:
It was a decent program designed for the non-Arm,enian audience. But what was up with the ASALA segment? Political terror was a symptom over 60 years of denial and silence and the inaction of traditional Armenian political bodies. As such, it was a natural outgrowth of the genocide'ds aftermath.
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