The So-called Balancing Panel

A good friend of mine, Simon Maghakyan, convinced me that I should update my blog more often. So allow me to start bloggin by going through the currently controversial issue of PBS “Denial Discussion Panel” aka “Balancing Panel” !

This whole issue started when Emmy Award winning Producer/Director Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions, wrote, directed and produced an unprecedented and powerful one-hour documentary, in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting, titled “The Armenian Genocide,” that’s scheduled to air April 17, 2006 at 10pm on Public Broadcasting Service, PBS.

The documentary Featuring interviews with the leading experts in the field such as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power and New York Times best-selling author, Peter Balakian, this film features never-before-seen historical footage of the events and key players of one of the greatest untold stories of the 20th century. Goldberg said :

"As Turkey seeks to join the European Union, 90 years later, this film can give people a much better understanding of why this issue is such an important and current part of the international conversation about Turkey's role in the world today."

As we all know that to this say Turkey still deny the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide, this denial was also included in the documentary. “Probably out of a misguided sense of providing balance,” Harut Sassounian explaines in his January 19th column titled Genocide Documentary: Rare Footage, Great Interviews, Some Shortcomings ,

“the documentary makers also included highly offensive statements by two infamous Turkish denialists (Gunduz Aktan, a former diplomat, and Yusuf Halacoglu, the head of the Turkish Historical Society). They and other Turkish citizens are shown refuting the facts of the Armenian Genocide. It is noteworthy that those who produce documentaries on the Jewish Holocaust never include denialist statements by neo-Nazis, just to appear ‘fair and balanced!’”

Few weeks later, Asbarez reported that PBS is planning to air immediately after the April 17 broadcast of "The Armenian Genocide" documentary, a 25-minute long “Panel Discussion” that includes two genocide deniers.

In his column of February 9, 2006 titled Boycott PBS Stations that Air "Balancing" Panel on Genocide Harut Sassounian reported that “Prof. Fatma Muge Gocek, a Turkish American scholar who opposes the Turkish government’s denials of the Armenian Genocide, explained to this writer why she refused to be on the panel:

“I see this as PBS politicizing the issue and giving in to Turkish State pressure. It sets a bad precedent and it is bound to be hailed as a victory by the Turkish State and their nationalist Diaspora. I would rather not have the documentary aired at all under such conditions.“

As Prof. Gocek stated, and as it’s obvious to all, who was behind this so-called Balancing Panel, of course the Turkish Propaganda machine was not happy with the documentary, and is trying to fight in everyway it can.

Unfortunately, the Turkish propaganda’s efforts resulted in the PBS decision of airing this pre-taped (by PBS on Feb. 6), so-called “Balancing Panel,” included Prof. Peter Balakian of Colgate Univ., NY; Prof. Taner Akcam of Univ. of Minnesota (a Turkish scholar who is a staunch defender of the facts of the Armenian Genocide); Armenian Genocide deniers Prof. Justin McCarthy of Univ. of Louisville, and Prof. Omer Turan of Middle East Technical Univ., Ankara. The moderator was Scott Simon of NPR (National Public Radio).

Protesting Voices



Of course, airing this balancing panel of discussion including Armenian Genocide deniers would be as offensive and ridiculous as airing a “Balancing Panel disussion” including Neo-Nazi trying to deny or justify for the Nazi, after a documentary about the Jewish Holocaust !!

Providing air time in National TV to Armenian Genocide deniers, and granting them an apportunity to cast doubt about the Armenian Genocide alone is an unreasonable and insulting thing for the PBS to do.

Therefore, an online petition was initiated in February 9, and signatures have been collected by a group or individual identifying themselves as “Armenian Tidorts” protesting airing the panel of discussion, in which we should all record our protest by the way here http://www.petitiononline.com/pbspanel/petition.html

This petition is to be sent to Ms. Jacoba Atlas, the Senior Vice President of PBS Programming, urging her "not to approve the airing of the panel discussion" after the documentary. People from around the world are still siging this petition until now, people from India, Iran, Middle East, Australia, Europ Canada and USA, there even were some petitioners who signed from Turkey and Azerbaijan !

Another way to show their protest some people sent e-mails to Jacoba Atlas Jatlas@PBS.org , urging her to cancel the panel discussion. John Eggerton in his column titled “PBS Gets Complaints About Genocide Panel,” published February 16, explains:

“PBS has received a number of complaints (163 e-mails, according to a spokeswoman) about their planned panel discussion following the airing of a documentary, The Armenian Genocide.”

Due to this amount of protests PBS acknowledged the Armenian Genocide, when a PBS spokeswoman Jan McNamara says that “PBS agrees with most historians that the [Armenian] genocide is estabished history.”


Although PBS is still insisting on airing the Armenian Genocide Denial discussion, but PBS said it is up to its 348 member stations to decide individually whether to air either the panel discussion or the documentary. Consequently many Armenians have contacted their local PBS stations asking for not giving air time to Armenian Genocide denial, most of the responses came from the local stations, assuring the views that only the Goldberg’s documentary will be aired and they have no intention in airing any offensive Genocide denial discussions afterwards.


The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has also called on 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 broadcast of "The Armenian Genocide" by Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions. 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."

Thus ANCA had launched a campaign to protest against this National TV denial of Armenian Genocide, via sending a protest web faxes to Ms. Atlas through it’s website, which you can find in this link.