DEFAMED ARMENIAN AMERICANS IN WAKE OF BOSTON BOMBINGS MUST SEEK FULL REMEDY
SATURDAY, 4 MAY 2013
USA Armenian Life #1362 —
By Appo Jabarian/Armenian Life USA
On April 30, several days after blatantly and massively defaming
Armenian Americans and causing monumental damages, Mr. Ruslan Tsarni,
uncle of the suspected April 15 Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan
Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, reportedly contacted the Armenian
Mirror-Spectator to issue an apology to the Armenian community for
“his recent statements referencing Armenians in his discussions of the
Boston bombings. ‘Armenia has a very strong culture, therefore, I want
to stress that his [an Armenian convert to Islam (Misha’s)] ethnicity
has nothing to do with it,’ Tsarni said. ‘I wish I had never said it.
… I felt for you [Armenians] and wish I had never done it,'”
Anti-Armenian accusations by Uncle Tsarni were heralded from the
‘rooftops’ of major U.S. media organizations but his apologies were
whispered into Armenian American ears.
If Mr. Tsarni is genuinely sorry for his defamatory actions
against Armenian Americans, he should remedy his initial defamatory
anti-Armenian media blitz that reached hundreds of millions of viewers
and readers worldwide with a new media campaign acknowledging his grave
mistake, and repeat his apology via the same mainstream media outlets.
On April 20, addressing several major media outlets regarding the April
15 Boston bombings, Mr. Tsarni had falsely claimed: “This person just
took his (Tamerlan’s) brain. He just brainwashed him completely.
… There is a person, some new convert into Islam of Armenian
descent.”
Ironically Mr. Tsarni chose peculiar timing – just few days before
April 24, to character assassinate an entire community. April 24 is the
day of each year when millions of Armenians worldwide mourn the death
of one and one half million compatriots at the hands of Turkey carried
out during the 1915-1923 Turkish Genocide of Christian Armenians.
Mr. Tsarni’s false anti-Armenian accusations via major U.S. media
outlets went viral to the detriment of innocent Armenians who were
being subjected to media-led attack on Armenian image and identity. It
remains to be seen which media outlets will come clean by correcting
own grave errors.
Certain U.S. media outlets chose to amplify Mr. Tsarni’s false
accusations unfairly singling out the ethnicity of an “Armenian Misha,”
when in fact Misha turned out to born in Baku, Azerbaijan coming from
half-Armenian and half-Ukrainian ethnic background.
Misha’s complete name was reported to be Mikhail Allakhverdov –
a 39-year-old man.
Upon confirmation, mentioning the nationality of a suspect in a news
report is fair. But to single out the ethnicity of one suspect and
not all the suspects is an act of discrimination. The ethnicity of
all suspects should be either declared or withheld.
As of press time Thursday May 2, a Google search with the words
‘”Boston bombers” Armenian’ turned out about 144,000 results. Based
on basic conversion formula each result is either a webpage of text,
blogs, or videos associating the word “Armenian” with the Boston
bombings can reach approximately 800-1000 internet users. So the
total audience reached via internet can be estimated anywhere from
115 to 144 million. This is Google alone.
The combined TV audience size reached by CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, CBS,
NBC and a host of other TV outlets with national and international
viewership; and print media such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times
and Washington Post can be estimated to have surpassed additional tens
of millions. Undoubtedly the damage suffered by Armenians is gigantic.
Obviously Mr. Tsarni had a field day by abusing the ‘opportunity’
given to him by mainstream U.S. media to tarnish the entire Armenian
American community that is totally unrelated with the case.
In response to Uncle Ruslan’s false claims, the very first public
reaction on a large-scale came on April 22 from Harut Sassounian,
Publisher of The California Courier who condemned Mr. Tsarni’s false
accusation linking “Armenian to Boston bombings.”
He publicly condemned those reaching speculative conclusions: “Instead
of jumping to unwarranted conclusions and making generalizations about
Chechens, Muslims, and the Tsarnaev family, some probing questions
are in order.”
He added: “Tsarni, the talkative uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers,
who made controversial and contradictory comments disseminated
worldwide …
has had direct ties to western energy companies involved in the Caspian
region. He has worked for Big Sky Energy, Golden Eagle Partners, and
Nelson Resources Ltd., all three with direct investments in Caspian
Sea energy projects. Could Tsarni’s ties to these energy companies
explain his accusation against an Armenian?”
He went on to ask several key questions. Then he concluded: “Why
hasn’t a single Armenian organization or official complained to the
news media about their dissemination of Tsarni’s baseless and libelous
statements, accusing an Armenian for radicalizing Tamerlan? … It is
high time that Armenians form an anti-defamation organization that
would vigorously pursue all those who libel and defame them around
the world.”
The second public reaction via mass media came on Apr 25, when
prominent Armenian-American attorney Mark Geragos went on CNN setting
that and other media outlets straight on Boston marathon bomber
coverage alleging an Armenian connection. Geragos blasted Mr. Tsarni
on CNN, suggesting that “somebody needs to give this uncle a field
sobriety test, because I think this guy is under the influence of
something,” expressing his furor over Tsarni’s linking the Boston
bombers to an ‘Armenian Misha.’
An official one-paragraph response came from ANCA on April 24. The
statement was circulated mainly via social media such as Facebook
saying “Any reading of the basic standards of journalistic integrity
would require that media outlets produce actual substantiated
evidence of an Armenian connection before continuing to run unproven
allegations. If such a person does, in fact, exist, journalists
and their editors should focus on getting the facts, not simply
re-circulating accusations without disclaimers regarding their
credibility, relevant cultural and religious context, or any scrutiny
of the possible motives of the accusers.”
To their credit, hundreds of Armenian and non-Armenian bloggers
countered Tsarni’s false claims.
On April 25, Edmond Y. Azadian of the Armenian Mirror-Spectator
wrote: “It seems that in this tense moment the Turkish and Azeri
disinformation services have played their dirty roles to deflect the
attention from the main case and float the Armenian name in the media,
knowing full well that once the damage is done to the Armenian image,
a million retractions and apologies cannot undo that damage. … It
is beyond comprehension how the Armenian name was injected into
this conversation about Chechen alleged terrorists. … The repeated
emphasis, seemingly without any reason, that the man who essentially
lit the fuses of the two impressionable Chechen men was Russian,
without his name being revealed, seems to indicate a tall tale,
rather than express the true starting point of this cancer.”
In a May 2 follow-up article titled “Moles, Informants and Double
Agents In Boston Marathon Bombings,” Sassounian wrote: “The next
suspicious character is Uncle Ruslan who has accused ‘Misha the
Armenian’ of having a powerful influence over Tamerlan. Ruslan himself
has had a checkered past, having worked for USAID and several Caspian
Sea energy companies, while married to Samantha Ankara Fuller,
daughter of Graham Fuller, a retired top CIA official. Because of
Ruslan’s close relationship to the bombers’ family, his employment
with Central Asian oil companies including Halliburton, and marriage
to the daughter of a high-ranking CIA official, some analysts have
suggested that the enigmatic uncle warrants a closer look.”
Armenian Americans should weigh their legal options and must seek
full remedy for their defamed image to restore their reputation as
a peaceful and productive community.