We wanted to inform our community that a lunch meeting was held with WWJ Detroit radio representatives on Wednesday, February 6th, to inform them about Turkey and issues concerning Turkey, especially the Armenian Allegations of the Genocide. This meeting was scheduled upon a request from WWJ Detroit after they kindly removed from their resources the announcement of an essay competition, titled Armenian Genocide organized by the Hagopian Family Foundation.
TACAM was represented by TACAM President Ms. Didem Şeyhoğlu, ATAA President Ms. Nurten Ural, ATAA President-Elect Mr. Günay Evinch, Dr. Sumer Pek and Mr. Stuart Schorr. Our group met with General Manager Mr. Rich Homberg, Director of Programming Mrs. Georgeann Herbert, News Director Mr. Rob Davidek and E-Publications Director Mr. Dan Keelan. Upon a tour of the radio station and introductions, we started our meeting with opening remarks of Ms. Şeyhoğlu − she also presented WWJ Detroit with a gift basket that included cultural elements that were used to describe some of Turkey’s traditions. This was followed by an amazing presentation from Mr. Evinch, where he highlighted the facts of the events that took place in 1915 and presented historical evidence and progression on why Turkey can not accept the Armenian allegations of the genocide. Mr. Evinch also handed out documents and literature supporting our position. Lastly, we had a Q&A session to answer any questions from our hosts.
The meeting was a great success in terms of informing a media resource on our perspective of the Armenian allegations of the genocide. It was also an achievement that TACAM now has connections in the media to get our voice heard across Detroit. Directors of the radio station suggested that we keep them informed of our events, cultural days, national and religious holidays so they could broadcast these on their radio station and that we provide them informative articles so they can be used in WWJ’s e-publications. Plus, they were excited that when topics related to Turkey arise in the future, they would immediately contact us for publishing joint programs. This was a great start for our community to strengthen our Turkish-American presence in the State of Michigan and be part of the Grassroots initiative that has been activated by ATAA.
We also would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in this project, specifically our Consul General Mr. Kenan İpek, Mr. Günay Evinch, Ms. Nurten Ural, Dr. Sumer Pek, Mrs. Mickey Katz-Pek, Mr. Stuart Schorr and Mrs. Dilek Kirca. We are looking forward to expanding the Grassroots initiative as TACAM, growing our community and carrying our voice for many many years to come.