ALI BIRINCI NEW TTK PRESIDENT

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 2 2008

Police Academy lecturer Professor Ali Birinci has been appointed to
the presidency of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK).

The decision to move Birinci to the TTK presidency was published in
the Official Gazette yesterday. Birinci is highly respected for his
books and articles on historical issues. Professor Yusuf Halacoglu,
the former TTK president, was removed from office by a Cabinet decision
and will serve as a professor at Gazi University as he did prior to
his nomination to the presidency.

Halacoglu is known as a strong denier of allegations that Armenians
were subjected to genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World
War I. He used to fervently claim in conferences and panel discussions
that claims of genocide were completely false and that the TTK has
100,000 pages of archived documents that refute Armenian claims of
genocide in 1915. Ä°stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires

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