Some readers of the Wall Street Journal may have been surprised to open their newspapers yesterday.
Full-page ad in today's @WSJ denying the Armenian genocide pic.twitter.com/LjBGjCo80l
— Gary Bass (@Gary__Bass) 20 April 2016
On a full-page ad, the newspaper printed an advertisement denying the Armenian genocide – the killing, in the 1910s, of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the government of the Ottoman Empire. The slaughter is regarded as genocide by several foreign governments but Turkey does not recognise it took place.
The ad was placed by Fact Check Armenia, a lobbying organisation which argues that the killing of Armenians was not an orchestrated campaign, and stresses that other nationalities and ethnicities were killed, too.
Don't Twist The Facts! Stop The Allegations! https://t.co/0MsA8QvmKp pic.twitter.com/ZzrUNaRjQe
— Fact Check Armenia (@FCArmenia) 20 April 2016
Perhaps more bizarrely, the advert was accompanied by a plane skywriting against Armenia, with the clouds over New York reading “Get Real! Fact Check Armenia!”.
Someone's currently flying over New York, skywriting "GET REAL! FACT CHECK ARMENIA" pic.twitter.com/7tcEhZ2Gnr
— Casey Michel (@cjcmichel) 20 April 2016
The advertisement caused outrage among some communities in the US. Most of the shock was reserved for the Wall Street Journal, one of the country’s most reputable newspapers, which was slammed for enabling the adverts to have such a huge platform.
@WSJ as a descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors, I am appalled by your abhorrent disregard for victims of this crime against humanity.
— Hourig Mayissian (@hourigmayis) 21 April 2016
The Turkish lobby's dedication to Armenian genocide denial is one thing; WSJ's complicity in it is another. https://t.co/EzAb71htfn
— Jo (@jo_bouk) 21 April 2016
Both the sky over and the WSJ were used to deny genocide today. Let's all tweet about how Turkey committed genocide and still lies about it
— David Klion (@DavidKlion) 20 April 2016
A statement to the Huffington Post from the Wall Street Journal said “We accept a wide range of advertisements, including those with provocative viewpoints… the varied and divergent views expressed belong to the advertisers.’
The genocide is commemorated annually on April 24.
