X
    Categories: News

Defiant French scholar to turn Turk

The Times Higher Education Supplement
January 19, 2007

Defiant French scholar to turn Turk

by Vera Rich

French historian and writer Jean Michel Thibaux has applied for
Turkish citizenship in protest at the French law making it illegal to
deny the "genocide" of the Armenians by the Turks in 1915-17.

Armenians claim that up to a million people perished during their
forced "relocation" to the desert. Mr Thibaux, however, asserts that
his extensive research into Ottoman, French and Russian archives
proves there was no genocide.

The Turks have always claimed that the deportations were a necessary
security measure and, save for a brief period in about 1920, have
consistently rejected the Armenians’ claims.

But while Turkish historians reject the terms "genocide" and
"holocaust", some admit that large numbers of Armenians perished
during the operation.

The Turkish Interior Ministry has given preliminary approval to Mr
Thibaux’s application. If it is accepted by the Council of Ministers,
Mr Thibaux will take the name Atakan Turk.

He has been offered a lectureship at Akdeniz University. According to
vice-rector Mehmet Aktenin, Mr Thibaux was not asking for a salary.
But the university will arrange housing for him on campus.

Professor Aktenin said he would begin teaching there as soon as his
citizenship process was complete.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS
Related Post