FactCheckArmenia.com
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FactCheckArmenia.com is a website whose stated purpose is "exposing
Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
n distortions and hypocrisies". Despite the name, it is not a
fact-checking website This list of fact-checking websites includes websites that provide fact-checking services about both political and non-political subjects. Certifications for fact-checking sites Whether a fact-checking site is in a network like the Internatio ...
; it publishes false information
denying Denial, in colloquial English usage, has at least three meanings: * the assertion that any particular statement or allegation, whose truth is uncertain, is not true; * the refusal of a request; and * the assertion that a true statement is fal ...
the
Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...
. Among the false claims made by the website is the assertion that "no Armenians were harmed" during the
deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915 The deportation of Armenian intellectuals is conventionally held to mark the beginning of the Armenian genocide. Leaders of the Armenian community in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul), and later other locations, were arrest ...
(most of the deportees were eventually murdered). According to ''
Vice News Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's alternative current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice Ne ...
'', "FactCheckArmenia dispenses a view that is suspiciously similar to the Turkish government's line—and sometimes, perhaps more extreme". According to genocide expert
Samuel Totten Samuel Totten is an American professor of history noted for his scholarship on genocide. Totten was a distinguished professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville where he taught from 1987 to 2012 and served as the chief editor of the jour ...
, the website uses a misleading title to "snare the uninformed". He adds that "There is hardly any other way to describe Fact Check Armenia than to say it is an out and out denier of the Ottoman Turk genocide of the Armenians between 1915 and 1922." The website is not transparent about its ownership or funding, but has links to the Turkish government. According to Ab Kaan, involved in both organizations, "all data in Fact Check Armenia is produced by The Turkic Platform".


Google ads

In 2015, ''
Vice News Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's alternative current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice Ne ...
'' reported that FactCheckArmenia.com was buying
Google ads Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, and videos to web users. It can place ads in the res ...
in order to appear first in the search results for the
search term A web query or web search query is a query that a user enters into a web search engine to satisfy their information needs. Web search queries are distinctive in that they are often plain text and boolean search directives are rarely used. They var ...
s "Ermeni Kırımı" (a Turkish phrase for the Armenian genocide), and the English-language "Armenian genocide". At the time, Google ad policy forbade "products or services that help users to mislead others".


Billboards and ads

In April 2015, the website published a paid ad in
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...
, which was later silently deleted. In 2016, ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' published an advertisement by FactCheckArmenia.com denying the Armenian genocide. Previously, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' refused to run the ad based on its policy rejecting any "advertising that denies great human tragedies". Los Angeles City Councilman
Paul Krekorian Paul Krekorian (born March 24, 1960) is an American politician who has represented the second district on the Los Angeles City Council from 2010 until 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the president of the Los Angeles City ...
proposed that the city stop buying the newspaper and any others that print ads denying the genocide.
Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (born October 21, 1980) is an American media personality, socialite, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the celebrity sex tape ...
took out an ad in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' stating, "Advocating the denial of a genocide by the country responsible for it – that’s not publishing a ‘provocative viewpoint,’ that's spreading lies". In April 2016, the website was advertised on billboards in various places including Boston, Chicago, Texas, and
Little Armenia, Los Angeles Little Armenia () is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. It is named after the Armenians who escaped Armenian genocide, genocide and made their way to Los Angeles during the early part of the 20th century. The area is served by ...
.
Armenian National Committee of America The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) () is an Armenian American grassroots organization. Its headquarters is in Washington, D.C., and it has regional offices in Glendale, California, and Watertown, Massachusetts. History The ANCA ...
launched a campaign against the billboards, encouraging companies to "stop profiting from genocide denial". Some of the posters were advertised by local Turkish consulates. Turkish historian
Fatma Müge Göçek Fatma Müge Göçek is a Turkish sociologist and professor at the University of Michigan. She wrote the book '' Denial of Violence'' in 2015 concerning the prosectution of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, for which she received the Mary ...
stated, "I have been following the story regarding the billboards in Boston and Chicago with great disappointment, but not surprise."


Skywriting

On 20 April 2016, FactCheckArmenia.com paid GEICO Skytypers for
skywriting Skywriting is the process of using one or more small aircraft, able to expel special smoke during flight, to fly in certain patterns that create writing readable from the ground. These messages can be advertisements, general messages of celebrat ...
over New York City stating "101 years of Geno-lie," "Gr8 ally = Turkey," "BFF = Russia + Armenia," and "FactCheckArmenia.com". GEICO Skytypers later apologized. Although some Armenian-Americans were outraged, the skywriting otherwise attracted little attention from Americans. Armenian-American novelist
Nancy Kricorian Nancy Jean Kricorian (born September 19, 1960) is an American author of the novels ''Zabelle'' (1997) and ''Dreams of Bread and Fire'' (2003). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published her third novel ''All the Light There Was'' in March 2013. Persona ...
stated that she was "appalled and disgusted" by the skywriting. Furthermore, she "was surprised to see that they are still peddling this tired and unconvincing strategy of calling Armenians liars". History professor Louis A. Fishman said, "Stunts like we saw Wednesday in New York only throw salt on the wounds of Armenians whose families died in the genocide". However, he also stated that most Americans were probably confused by the messages.


Twitter

The website has an affiliated
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
account, @FCArmenia. On 24 April, 2020 (
Armenian Genocide Memorial Day Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day ( ''Mets Yegherrni zoheri hishataki or'') or Armenian Genocide Memorial Day is a Public holidays in Armenia, public holiday in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (before the Flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, flig ...
), the account tweeted "#ArmenianGenocide is a hoax! Armenian lobby fooled public opinion for many years". This view is in contrast to that of historical research and scholarship, which considers the genocide a historical fact.


References


External links

* {{Armenian genocide denial Fake news websites Armenian genocide denial