By TIM McCAHILL
Associated Press Writer
February 28, 2006, 8:24 PM EST
NEW YORK — A public broadcasting station has decided not to air a panel discussion that includes speakers who deny the killing of more than 1 million Armenians in the 20th century was genocide.
The taped discussion, which was scheduled to run April 17 on WNET-TV, was criticized by elected officials and Armenian-American community leaders, who called it an insult.
But a spokeswoman for the PBS affiliate said Tuesday’s decision had nothing to do with politics.
“It was an editorial decision,” said Stella Giammasi, vice president and director of communications at WNET, Channel 13.
The program was to follow a new documentary, “Armenian Genocide,” which features interviews with Kurdish and Turkish citizens speaking about their families’ experiences during the period and will air as scheduled.
After screening the discussion, Giammasi said, WNET officials determined it “did not add anything to the documentary.”
U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who joined others at a protest outside WNET’s office in Manhattan on Saturday, applauded the move.
“PBS, Channel 13, they do some of the best, most independent, thorough programming you can imagine on important issues,” he said. “They made a decision here that protects that reputation and doesn’t tarnish it.”
A PBS spokeswoman said it was up to its 348 affiliates to decide whether to carry a show.
Armenians say that Ottoman Turks caused the deaths of 1.5 million of them in a planned genocide around the time of World War I, while Turkey denies the claim.
The panel includes historians Justin McCarthy and Omer Turan, who, according to the Armenian National Committee of America, deny the deaths amounted to genocide.
McCarthy, a professor at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, classified the deaths as a “mutual genocide,” with both sides killing each other, and said he wasn’t surprised WNET pulled the panel discussion.
“I think it’s politically motivated cowardice,” he said. “Scholars should debate all issues.”
Turan, who teaches history at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, said he was sure many innocent people on both sides died.
“However, I cannot accept to name it as Armenian genocide,” he said in an e-mail.
Weiner, D-N.Y., said he hoped WNET’s decision would prompt other PBS stations to reconsider whether to air the discussion.
“Let me put it this way,” he said, “I hope this panel discussion isn’t aired on any PBS station.”
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