PROPAGANDA WARS: PARADOXICAL PUBLICATION POLICY OF TIME MAGAZINE

After having understood that terrorist activities has been reacted by international community and has remained ineffective, Armenians resorted to propaganda activities since mid-1980s. Within this framework, they not only brought the Armenian allegations to the agenda of the world public opinion through visual and printed press, cinema films, documentaries, painting and photograph exhibitions etc., but also aimed to fabricate that these allegations have been true. It should be admitted that this strategy change has been successful, because particularly since the second half of 1980s, Armenian allegations have been recognized by some parliaments as a result of these propaganda activities.

After the efficiency of this changing strategy has been understood, there emerged some similar attempts in Turkey, the most significant of which was the incorporation of a DVD to TIME magazine two years ago, including a documentary that uprooted the genocide allegations. As it is well known, TIME is a journal which reaches to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.

As to remind this development, TIME published a four-paged coloured touristic advertisement on Turkey in June 2005 entitled “Crossroad of Culture: Turkey” to which a DVD was added. This DVD had four parts, three of which was about the natural beauties and historical possessions of Turkey while the fourth one was a large summary of a documentary on Armenian Question entitled “Yellow Bride”. The DVD was distributed with the European issue of the journal and reached almost over 600.000 people directly or indirectly. Sinan Aygün, the head of Ankara Chamber of Commerce, who had given this advertisement, announced that its cost was almost one million dollar.

The reaction of Armenians to this significant event was quite harsh. Perhaps for the first time Turks applied the same strategy adopted by Armenians  for years and made the historical realities reached to hundereds of thousands of Europeans. Of course, this meant that the fiction of ‘Armenian genocide’, which has long been reflected by Armenians as ‘truth’, was considerably shaken even deconstructed. Therefore, this harsh reaction was a result of the feeling that Armenian efforts has been frustrated to a great extent.

After the distribution of the journal, a Tashnak oriented French organization, Comité de Défense de la Cause Arménienne, issued a declaration condemning the denial policy of Turkey, accusing TIME magazine of supporting Turkish cause and defining this initiative as an attempt to create a confusion on the historical reality (!). The head of the Committee, Harut Mardirosyan argued that TIME magazine lost its honour and sold its credibility.

As a result of this reaction TIME had to retreat. After four months of this incidence the journal issued a letter sent by an organization, “Mémoire 2000”, which acted on behalf of some organizations working against racism, anti-Semitism and Armenian genocide allegations’ denial. In this long letter, the accuracy of Armenian genocide allegations was once more repeated and TIME magazine was strongly criticized. The Editorial Note attached to the letter also declared the magazine was regretted on the distribution of the DVD, that the DVD was a one-sided interpretation of history and that it did not fit the magazine’s standards of objectivity and honesty. What is more, it was written that the methods of redution of the magazine was changed accordingly and the Armenian community was apologized.

However, it is difficult to say that even this apologize satisfied the Armenian diaspora since it was able to force TIME magazine to distribute a DVD defending the Armenian genocide allegations to the last issue of the magazine. The DVD, which included a 52 minutes documentary that had been directed by French director Laurance Jordan and aired by German-French TV channel ARTE, and an attached note on the Armenian ‘genocide’ was distributed free of charge, as the Turkish pres stipulated. In other words, TIME magazine, which had previously demanded one million dollar to publish Turkish thesis, did the same free of charge for the Armenians.

This latest initiative of the Armenian diaspora can exactly be considered as a response to the Turkish attempt that had been realized two years ago. Utilization of the same magazine (i.e., TIME magazine) and the same method (i.e., DVD) indicates that the Armenian initiative has been done to disturb the Turkish strategy. TIME’s decision to distribute the DVD free of charge and to declare that it had recognized the genocide allegations as a reality, asserts that there has been a significant pressure on the magazine for two years. In all, this incidence is also significant for demonstrating that the magazine, under pressure, could easily falsify what it had verified previously. To conclude, Armenian diaspora understands that Turkish attempt to herald the realities to the world public opinion becomes successful and that it can not tolerate even the existence of a platform, in which alternative ideas are freely discussed.