PanARMENIAN.Net
Account of Armenian Genocide wins Minnesota Book Award
07.05.2007 17:44 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An account of the Armenian Genocide written by Taner
Akcam, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota won a
Minnesota Book Award this weekend.
Taner Akcam was honored for writing "A Shameful Act: The Armenian
Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility."
Judges called it a "pioneering work" and "scrupulous account of
Turkish responsibility for the killing of 1.5 million Armenians" and
praised Akcam and his publisher, Metropolitan Books, for "challenging
the country’s 90-plus-year denial of intentional genocide."
Akcam left Turkey in the 1970s after being prosecuted, jailed,
threatened, vilified and harassed.
"I’m deeply honored to accept this award," Akcam said, "in the hope of
preventing further genocides."
He dedicated his award for best general nonfiction book to his close
friend, Hrant Dink, a Turkish Armenian newspaper editor who was gunned
down outside his office in Istanbul in January, allegedly by extreme
nationalists, the AP reports.