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AZG DAILY #77, 29-04-2010
LISTENERS REACT TO RFE/RL'S BROADCAST ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE:
"How Disgusting!"
Hrant Darbinian
"Well, of course, there was no Genocide. It's the Armenians who
killed themselves, they like it" - that's how one of the listeners
reacted to broadcast titled "Why so many historians in Turkey study the
issue of Armenian Genocide". Russian Service of American Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) aired that item on April 22 and then
placed the text on its Internet site. The feed came from RFE/RL
correspondent in Istanbul.
To its credit (or disgrace), Radio Liberty got a lot of feedback.
"Ahmadinejad denies Holocaust, madam from Istanbul denies Armenian
Genocide. Congratulations to Radio Liberty - you are in a good
company!", "It's miserable for such a site as Radio Liberty.
Especially on the eve of April 24. It `s not a worthy contribution but
an editorial window dressing on the occasion of Genocide Memorial Day.
Ashamed of Radio Liberty", "To hear them, so it is the Armenians who
massacred the whole Turkish nation=85", "Radio Liberty should apologize
to its audience. Is it a high standard of journalism of Radio Liberty?",
"Shame on you! Shame and disgrace!"=85
What outraged RFE/RL's listeners and readers? The views and opinions
of Turkish historians? Not only that, although the vast majority of
respondents does not share them.
"You presented the opinion of Turkish side. Try to ask the Armenians"
The broadcast from Istanbul aired fifteen minutes -- infinitely long
for the radio feed and mercilessly dragged out for a listener. This in
itself is unprofessional, however, question is, of course, not the
format but its filling.
For example, RFE/RL listener could learn that American professor
Justin McCarthy "argues that the Genocide is but the historians'
invention" (meaning: not of Turkish historians); that the book "by
famous British historian Norman Stone=85 'World War One: A Short
History' completely refutes all theses of genocide". Quoting from that
book, RFE/RL author explains why the Armenians had chosen April 24th as
the day to commemorate their victims. It occurs that on that date "the
chieftains of Armenian gangs who betrayed the Ottoman Empire were
apprehended". Uninitiated listener could accept it just as one takes any
information from authoritative neutral source. Any Armenian, however,
shudders at hearing that, because it is on April 24, 1915 that the
blossom of Armenian intelligentsia in Turkey was arrested, several
hundred people - parliament deputies, writers, clergymen, doctors,
journalists, actors, artists, publishers=85 Most of them were brutally
killed or perished from malnutrition, thirst, physical privations.
It is not our aim to repeat, then deny or seriously challenge all the
nonsense and outright lies that found its way into RFE/RL report. Just
as it is not our goal here to prove how groundless the claims of the
quoted Turkish historians or some schoolteacher from Istanbul are.
Nevertheless, there are such evident absurdities that is impossible to
overlook.
In RFE/RL broadcast aired in anticipation of the 95th anniversary of
Armenian Genocide, "speaks one of the few witnesses of those terrible
events, Kemal Aakay. He is about one hundred and seven years old". Here
is what he shared with RFE/RL Istanbul correspondent - not as a
historian, but as an eyewitness and participant of the events: "In the
province of Van the Armenians rose in revolt. In our village there were
about two hundred people, mostly women, men went to war. I was five
years old. I do not remember everything, but recall that all were herded
into one hut, a few days we spent without food, we were only given
water, then all were shot; I was protected by my grandmother, she
covered me with her body...".
How is it that the old man, born about 1903, was in 1915, in his own
words, just five, not 12 years old? And why such an obvious absurdity
that undercuts the credibility of the entire heartbreaking testimony,
was not noticed either by RFE/RL contributor in Istanbul, or by
moderating editor in Prague? The result -- in listener's reaction: "To
give such a story on the eve of Remembrance Day for the victims of
Armenian Genocide is mean, to say the least. I do not know what thought
its author, but what is for me even more confusing is unprofessionalizm
of Radio Liberty. Your article is biased and of anti-Armenian
character". Another voice: "Let's also say there were no massacres in
Sumgait and Baku in 1988! One's heart bleeds to hear and read such a
nonsense, especially on a day like this, especially from Russians=85"
Meanwhile, the RFE/RL Istanbul correspondent answered -- more or less
-- her headlined question: Why the study of Armenian genocide became the
mass occupation of Turkish historians. Because, as she notes at the end
of her item, "today the debates about history occupy a central place in
Turkish politics. The Turkish public is extremely politicized and
fractured, including views on the Armenian issue". Of course, she should
of talked with those Turks who, in her words, "unreservedly recognize
the Armenian Genocide". That, to the detriment of RFE/RL listeners, did
not happen. At the same time, to be fair, the stringer reporting from
Istanbul, hardly could or should be expected to present the Armenian
position.
Does it mean that RFE/RL listeners are up in arms without good cause?
No, it does not. For the proper addressee of their frustration is the
American Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as the source of information.
In this case - of misinformation. Because the radio broadcast on
Turkish position, unless it was accompanied or preceded by the position
Armenian, as well as the positions of those, by now quite numerous,
states that have officially recognized the bloody ethnic nightmare in
the Ottoman Empire of 1915 - 1923 as the Armenian Genocide, hangs in
the air. In the truest sense of the word. Such a broadcast becomes (and
became!) just a distorted one-sided presentation of the reasons and
circumstances of Armenian national tragedy - in Turkish view only,
while the victim of the crime was practically rendered silent by the
media organization, by RFE/RL. The radio is not a book with the pages to
be turned over back and forth. RFE/RL is not a volume of "Judgement in
Nuremberg" where one can read first the speeches of accusation and then
of the defense and vice versa. This is why that broadcast by American
RFE/RL is a cry of unprofessionalizm, which caused a painful offense to
the listeners.
Not only to Armenian listeners, but in the first place - to them:
"That article must be translated into Armenian and reprinted in the
local press. After that conduct a survey - how many Armenians will
still go to the RFE/RL website, how many will switch on the set during
Radio Liberty broadcasting hours, how many young journalists would like
to deal with it ".
A fish rots from the head
Where did it come from - such a blatant editorial unprofessionalizm?
It came from indifference. And that, in its turn, stems from the general
atmosphere at RFE/RL - the atmosphere of hypocrisy and cynicism.
Hence, the unbalanced broadcast items of monstrous proportions and
equally monstrous effect. For the editors could not care less.
Practically all the staff of RFE/RL language desks and services know
that they are just the rightless mercenaries hired to talk about human
rights - on the air for the pay. All of them know that RFE/RL
president has over them such a power that not a single authoritarian
ruler in the Radios' broadcasting area could ever boast - in his own
person, he is a policemen, a prosecutor in his own court without
defense, a judge whose verdict is final without appeal, and the executor
of his own judgements. Everyone knows that those prerogatives of RFE/RL
boss are not included in employment contracts but imposed on RFE/RL
foreign employees by its internal policies; however, that feudal
employment status is called a "free choice of law".
Everyone at RFE/RL knows that the court case of Armenian Anna
Karapetian v. RFE/RL is pending in the Czech Supreme court; and the
lawsuit of Croatian citizen Snjezana Pelivan is submitted to the
European Court of Human Rights - everyone knows that, but is afraid to
discuss it out of fear to be fired without any explanation, just the way
Anna Karapetian and Snjezana Pelivan were fired. Everyone knows that
international media cover these court cases regularly - but not the
RFE/RL own webpages. Everyone knows that Czech parliament already twice,
in connection with Karapetian's and Pelivan's lawsuits, discussed
the issue of national discrimination of RFE/RL foreign employees.
Everyone knows that RFE/RL personnel policies are developed and
approved by the Broadcasting Board of Governors in Washington, and that
Hillary Clinton is the member of that Board, as well as of RFE/RL Board
of Directors, so that for them there is no official place and no
official to complain to. Everyone knows that, as a Senator, Hillary
Clinton strongly supported the approval by the Congress of a resolution
that would brand the extermination of Armenians in Ottoman Empire as
Genocide. And everyone knows that, as the Secretary of State, she,
equally strongly, opposes such a resolution: the Communists claim
dialectics of history, the anti-Communists - dialectics of chair.
It's a big principal difference as everybody knows=85
Everybody knows, as an indignant listener wrote to RFE/RL, that "Radio
Liberty has long ceased to be the Radio Liberty". Or, as in the last
issue of The Journal of International Security Affairs, Washington,
wrote Victor J. Yasman, a political analyst who worked over twenty years
at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich and Prague, "Today, RFE/RL
is just a shadow of its former self", and explained why: Empty words
diverge with deeds, and the deeds are drifting from bad to worse.
Meanwhile, if one is to judge by tone and content of the listeners'
reaction to RFE/RL "looking from Turkey" broadcast on Armenian genocide,
hypocritical and inept bureaucracy in Prague and Washington keeps
laboring on further destruction of RFE/RL reputation and integrity. In
the words of Mario Corty, former RFE/RL Russian Service director, "Those
among the old KGB and the new FSB officials, who see the U.S. as an
enemy rather than a valuable and generous partner of Russia, could only
be enormously happy with such leaders in charge of U.S. international
broadcasting as the current U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors
executive team. They have no reason to worry or need to do anything
themselves to undermine U.S.-funded broadcasts; it is being done for
them by these American government officials who are now trying hard to
hide their mistakes from the White House, the U.S. Congress and the
American public."
For how long they'll be successful?
PS. On April 26, the text version of RFE/RL broadcast "Why so many
historians in Turkey study the issue of Armenian genocide" and the
listeners' feedback letters were removed from Internet site of the
Russian Service.
LISTENERS REACT TO RFE/RL'S BROADCAST ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE:
"How Disgusting!"
Hrant Darbinian
"Well, of course, there was no Genocide. It's the Armenians who
killed themselves, they like it" - that's how one of the listeners
reacted to broadcast titled "Why so many historians in Turkey study the
issue of Armenian Genocide". Russian Service of American Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) aired that item on April 22 and then
placed the text on its Internet site. The feed came from RFE/RL
correspondent in Istanbul.
To its credit (or disgrace), Radio Liberty got a lot of feedback.
"Ahmadinejad denies Holocaust, madam from Istanbul denies Armenian
Genocide. Congratulations to Radio Liberty - you are in a good
company!", "It's miserable for such a site as Radio Liberty.
Especially on the eve of April 24. It `s not a worthy contribution but
an editorial window dressing on the occasion of Genocide Memorial Day.
Ashamed of Radio Liberty", "To hear them, so it is the Armenians who
massacred the whole Turkish nation=85", "Radio Liberty should apologize
to its audience. Is it a high standard of journalism of Radio Liberty?",
"Shame on you! Shame and disgrace!"=85
What outraged RFE/RL's listeners and readers? The views and opinions
of Turkish historians? Not only that, although the vast majority of
respondents does not share them.
"You presented the opinion of Turkish side. Try to ask the Armenians"
The broadcast from Istanbul aired fifteen minutes -- infinitely long
for the radio feed and mercilessly dragged out for a listener. This in
itself is unprofessional, however, question is, of course, not the
format but its filling.
For example, RFE/RL listener could learn that American professor
Justin McCarthy "argues that the Genocide is but the historians'
invention" (meaning: not of Turkish historians); that the book "by
famous British historian Norman Stone=85 'World War One: A Short
History' completely refutes all theses of genocide". Quoting from that
book, RFE/RL author explains why the Armenians had chosen April 24th as
the day to commemorate their victims. It occurs that on that date "the
chieftains of Armenian gangs who betrayed the Ottoman Empire were
apprehended". Uninitiated listener could accept it just as one takes any
information from authoritative neutral source. Any Armenian, however,
shudders at hearing that, because it is on April 24, 1915 that the
blossom of Armenian intelligentsia in Turkey was arrested, several
hundred people - parliament deputies, writers, clergymen, doctors,
journalists, actors, artists, publishers=85 Most of them were brutally
killed or perished from malnutrition, thirst, physical privations.
It is not our aim to repeat, then deny or seriously challenge all the
nonsense and outright lies that found its way into RFE/RL report. Just
as it is not our goal here to prove how groundless the claims of the
quoted Turkish historians or some schoolteacher from Istanbul are.
Nevertheless, there are such evident absurdities that is impossible to
overlook.
In RFE/RL broadcast aired in anticipation of the 95th anniversary of
Armenian Genocide, "speaks one of the few witnesses of those terrible
events, Kemal Aakay. He is about one hundred and seven years old". Here
is what he shared with RFE/RL Istanbul correspondent - not as a
historian, but as an eyewitness and participant of the events: "In the
province of Van the Armenians rose in revolt. In our village there were
about two hundred people, mostly women, men went to war. I was five
years old. I do not remember everything, but recall that all were herded
into one hut, a few days we spent without food, we were only given
water, then all were shot; I was protected by my grandmother, she
covered me with her body...".
How is it that the old man, born about 1903, was in 1915, in his own
words, just five, not 12 years old? And why such an obvious absurdity
that undercuts the credibility of the entire heartbreaking testimony,
was not noticed either by RFE/RL contributor in Istanbul, or by
moderating editor in Prague? The result -- in listener's reaction: "To
give such a story on the eve of Remembrance Day for the victims of
Armenian Genocide is mean, to say the least. I do not know what thought
its author, but what is for me even more confusing is unprofessionalizm
of Radio Liberty. Your article is biased and of anti-Armenian
character". Another voice: "Let's also say there were no massacres in
Sumgait and Baku in 1988! One's heart bleeds to hear and read such a
nonsense, especially on a day like this, especially from Russians=85"
Meanwhile, the RFE/RL Istanbul correspondent answered -- more or less
-- her headlined question: Why the study of Armenian genocide became the
mass occupation of Turkish historians. Because, as she notes at the end
of her item, "today the debates about history occupy a central place in
Turkish politics. The Turkish public is extremely politicized and
fractured, including views on the Armenian issue". Of course, she should
of talked with those Turks who, in her words, "unreservedly recognize
the Armenian Genocide". That, to the detriment of RFE/RL listeners, did
not happen. At the same time, to be fair, the stringer reporting from
Istanbul, hardly could or should be expected to present the Armenian
position.
Does it mean that RFE/RL listeners are up in arms without good cause?
No, it does not. For the proper addressee of their frustration is the
American Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as the source of information.
In this case - of misinformation. Because the radio broadcast on
Turkish position, unless it was accompanied or preceded by the position
Armenian, as well as the positions of those, by now quite numerous,
states that have officially recognized the bloody ethnic nightmare in
the Ottoman Empire of 1915 - 1923 as the Armenian Genocide, hangs in
the air. In the truest sense of the word. Such a broadcast becomes (and
became!) just a distorted one-sided presentation of the reasons and
circumstances of Armenian national tragedy - in Turkish view only,
while the victim of the crime was practically rendered silent by the
media organization, by RFE/RL. The radio is not a book with the pages to
be turned over back and forth. RFE/RL is not a volume of "Judgement in
Nuremberg" where one can read first the speeches of accusation and then
of the defense and vice versa. This is why that broadcast by American
RFE/RL is a cry of unprofessionalizm, which caused a painful offense to
the listeners.
Not only to Armenian listeners, but in the first place - to them:
"That article must be translated into Armenian and reprinted in the
local press. After that conduct a survey - how many Armenians will
still go to the RFE/RL website, how many will switch on the set during
Radio Liberty broadcasting hours, how many young journalists would like
to deal with it ".
A fish rots from the head
Where did it come from - such a blatant editorial unprofessionalizm?
It came from indifference. And that, in its turn, stems from the general
atmosphere at RFE/RL - the atmosphere of hypocrisy and cynicism.
Hence, the unbalanced broadcast items of monstrous proportions and
equally monstrous effect. For the editors could not care less.
Practically all the staff of RFE/RL language desks and services know
that they are just the rightless mercenaries hired to talk about human
rights - on the air for the pay. All of them know that RFE/RL
president has over them such a power that not a single authoritarian
ruler in the Radios' broadcasting area could ever boast - in his own
person, he is a policemen, a prosecutor in his own court without
defense, a judge whose verdict is final without appeal, and the executor
of his own judgements. Everyone knows that those prerogatives of RFE/RL
boss are not included in employment contracts but imposed on RFE/RL
foreign employees by its internal policies; however, that feudal
employment status is called a "free choice of law".
Everyone at RFE/RL knows that the court case of Armenian Anna
Karapetian v. RFE/RL is pending in the Czech Supreme court; and the
lawsuit of Croatian citizen Snjezana Pelivan is submitted to the
European Court of Human Rights - everyone knows that, but is afraid to
discuss it out of fear to be fired without any explanation, just the way
Anna Karapetian and Snjezana Pelivan were fired. Everyone knows that
international media cover these court cases regularly - but not the
RFE/RL own webpages. Everyone knows that Czech parliament already twice,
in connection with Karapetian's and Pelivan's lawsuits, discussed
the issue of national discrimination of RFE/RL foreign employees.
Everyone knows that RFE/RL personnel policies are developed and
approved by the Broadcasting Board of Governors in Washington, and that
Hillary Clinton is the member of that Board, as well as of RFE/RL Board
of Directors, so that for them there is no official place and no
official to complain to. Everyone knows that, as a Senator, Hillary
Clinton strongly supported the approval by the Congress of a resolution
that would brand the extermination of Armenians in Ottoman Empire as
Genocide. And everyone knows that, as the Secretary of State, she,
equally strongly, opposes such a resolution: the Communists claim
dialectics of history, the anti-Communists - dialectics of chair.
It's a big principal difference as everybody knows=85
Everybody knows, as an indignant listener wrote to RFE/RL, that "Radio
Liberty has long ceased to be the Radio Liberty". Or, as in the last
issue of The Journal of International Security Affairs, Washington,
wrote Victor J. Yasman, a political analyst who worked over twenty years
at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich and Prague, "Today, RFE/RL
is just a shadow of its former self", and explained why: Empty words
diverge with deeds, and the deeds are drifting from bad to worse.
Meanwhile, if one is to judge by tone and content of the listeners'
reaction to RFE/RL "looking from Turkey" broadcast on Armenian genocide,
hypocritical and inept bureaucracy in Prague and Washington keeps
laboring on further destruction of RFE/RL reputation and integrity. In
the words of Mario Corty, former RFE/RL Russian Service director, "Those
among the old KGB and the new FSB officials, who see the U.S. as an
enemy rather than a valuable and generous partner of Russia, could only
be enormously happy with such leaders in charge of U.S. international
broadcasting as the current U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors
executive team. They have no reason to worry or need to do anything
themselves to undermine U.S.-funded broadcasts; it is being done for
them by these American government officials who are now trying hard to
hide their mistakes from the White House, the U.S. Congress and the
American public."
For how long they'll be successful?
PS. On April 26, the text version of RFE/RL broadcast "Why so many
historians in Turkey study the issue of Armenian genocide" and the
listeners' feedback letters were removed from Internet site of the
Russian Service.