Turkish nationalism and the Armenian Genocide to be subject of talk by
noted Turkish author

armradio.am
16.02.2007 13:42

Historian Taner Akcam, one of the first Turkish academics to
acknowledge and openly discuss the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman
Turkish government in 1915, will speak March 29, in the York Room of
Birch Mansion on the campus of Ramapo College, reports the Armenian
Natioanl Committee of America.

Sponsored by Ramapo College’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, in cooperation with the Armenian National Committee of New
Jersey, Akcam’s talk will be based on his book `A Shameful Act: The
Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility,’
published by Metropolitan Books last November.

The 2006 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Orhan Pamuk, has called Akcam’s
book `¦the definitive account of the organized destruction of the
Ottoman Armenians written by a brave Turkish scholar who has devoted
his life to chronicling the events. No future discussion of the history
will be able to ignore this brilliant book.’

Making extensive use of Ottoman and other sources not previously done
so by historians of any nationality, Akcam places the genocide within
the context of Turkish nationalism. He shows an empire in a state of
collapse that is plagued by dissension and contradiction. In its dying
breath, as Akcam depicts, it lashes out against one of its ethnic and
religious minorities, resulting in what was to become the first of the
20th Century’s genocides in which over a million Armenian men, women
and children lost their lives and livelihoods through organized
killing, rape and deportation. Akcam also investigates the postwar
efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice and explains how the
growing strategic importance of the Middle East assured their failure.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress