WAVE OF ACCUSATIONS FOR "INSULTING TURKISHNESS" REACHED TANER AKCAM
PanARMENIAN.Net
10.01.2007 14:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey has officially launched an investigation
against Taner Akcam, the first Turkish intellectual to recognize
the Armenian Genocide as such, thus ‘insulting Turkishness’, reports
The Armenian Reporter, referring to Turkish magazine The Radikal. The
Istanbul newspaper Radikal has reported that an official investigation
has been opened against University of Minnesota Akcam, who claims
that, the Armenian deportations of 1915 and following constituted
genocide. Radikal broke the story on January 9, 2007. In an October 6,
2006, newspaper column in the Turkish Armenian journal Agos, Akcam
criticized the prosecution of Agos managing editor Hrant Dink for
using the term `genocide,’ thereby `insulting Turkishness’ under the
notorious Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code.
Highlighting the term `genocide,’ Akcam declared himself an accessory
to the charges against Dink, and urged readers to join in Dink’s
support.
Akcam is the author of A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and
the Question of Turkish Responsibility, which has been widely and
positively reviewed in the United States, and has brought a great
deal of public attention lately to the author and the subject of the
Armenian Genocide.