Abovian Armenian Cultural Association
Address: Weesperstraat 91
2574 VS The Hague, The Netherlands
Telephone: +31704490209
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Email: [email protected]
Press Release
For immediate release
21 December 2006
Contact: M. Hakhverdian
Impressive lecture by Akcam in Amsterdam
By I. Drost
Well documented and eloquent, Turkish professor of History Taner Akcam, held
a lecture at University of Amsterdam on 18 December 2006. The meeting was
organised by CREA Studium Generale in cooperation with Humanist Broadcasting
Foundation (HUMAN) and Dutch Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Taner Akcam was invited to give a lecture in Amsterdam because of the
current debate in the Dutch media and politics on the Armenian Genocide.
HUMAN wanted to contribute in a positive way to this debate by improving the
knowledge on this matter. The event coincided with the publication of
Akcam’s new book "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of
Turkish Responsibility", which will be published in Dutch in May 2007.
Prior to the lecture the participants to this event, among whom many members
of Turkish and Armenian communities of the Netherlands, watched the Dutch
documentary "A wall of silence" by Dorothee Forma, a HUMAN production in
1997. This documentary film parallels the personal and professional lives of
Armenian scholar Vahakn Dadrian and Turkish researcher Taner Akcam and their
call for recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Introducing Taner Akcam professor Erik-Jan Zurcher, professor of Turkish
language and culture at the University of Leiden, mentioned that Akcam is
one of the scholars, who presents "the state of the art" in his field of
research. He combines in his research Armenian scientific publications,
documents from Ottoman archives and Turkish Military Tribunal of 1919 as
well as documents found in the German archives.
After Akcam’s speech many Turks stood up to protest rather than ask
questions, but Akcam peacefully and effectively managed to give clear
response and at the same time tried to pacify the Turks by repeating the
statement: "we have to learn to talk".
Akcam focussed in his lecture on his findings in Ottoman archives,
especially the material available in the Prime Ministerial Archives
(BaÅ~_bakanlık Osmanlı ArÅ~_ivi) in Istanbul. According to him a number of
documents can also be found online. At the same time he mentioned that lots
of documents have been removed from the archives. For the cleaning itself
there are more than enough evidences; lots of documents concerning Armenian
deportations and massacres have been destroyed during the crime.
He explained also how total cleaning of archives is impossible, even when
the government demanded to burn documents directly after reading. Orders and
documents were always copied for different departments and it is impossible
to retrace and destroy all of them.
Akcam said that the first deportations and forced migration already began in
1913 with the deportation of Greeks from the Aegean area. This forced
migration expanded to the other minorities: Assyrians and Muslims from
Bulgaria etc. whose lives were affected in different ways, depending on the
intention of the government. While the goal with respect to the non-Turkish
Muslims was the Turkification, in the case of the Armenians the intention to
annihilate the whole population is evident from many documents. Regarding to
the deportation this intention was present as the authorities were aware of
the effect of these deportations, but still continued to handle in the same
way. Other evident examples are the decrees issued by the government on the
Armenian properties, which gives strong indications that the intention of
the Young Turk rulers was the annihilation of Armenians. Akcam also
explained why UN Genocide Convention (1948) is applicable to Armenian case.
For example forcible transfer of Armenian children to Muslims constitutes
one of elements of the UN definition of genocide. Also young Armenian girls
were forced to marry Muslims. This is well documented.
Answering a question about the Turkish proposal to Armenia to form a joint
commission of Turkish and Armenian historians, professor Zurcher said that a
dialogue is necessary, but that the proposal is not as innocent as it seems,
because of the conditions put forward by Turkey. Turkey wants the historians
to be appointed by the governments and also all political discussion on
historical subjects to be suspended during the work of the commission. It
should not come as a surprise that Armenia cannot accept the proposal under
such conditions.
Akcam elaborated on this issue by putting the rhetoric question how such a
commission could function when there is no normal relation between the two
countries. Even a letter from Ankara first has to go to Tbilisi in Georgia
before reaching Armenia. Akcam agrees therefore with Armenian government
that a commission is necessary to deal with all issues. He would also
suggest the EU to compose a roadmap that includes a step-by-step approach
for solving all problems.
When Turks who brought up a Turkish translation of a book (1923) by the
first Armenian Prime Minister (1918) H. Katchaznouni, in which the author
would have admitted the role of Armenian voluntary troops in the Russian
army, Taner Akcam said, that even if this is corrrect, would it mean that
the genocide had not taken place? And what was the culpability of Armenians
living peacefully far from the Russian borders, who had nothing to do with
the events in Eastern Turkey? Comparing with World War II, would the fact
that one million Germans were killed after the war in several countries mean
that the Holocaust did not occur?
Referring to the alleged 100 thousand Turks killed by Armenians, Akcam
recalled that the figure given by Turkish Military in 1917 in this respect,
is in total approximately 5000 deaths, for all the places involved. But we
regret every victim, he added.
Akcam made a great impression by the way he dealt with sometimes-aggressive
way of acting by Turkish audience. He asked to remain calm and show more
respect towards each other, but also repeating and reassuring that Turks and
Armenians are not the only two peoples in the world that have problems with
each other and that there are ways to solve these problems, like it is done
in South Africa, and that this process needs time and effort.
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