TURKISH SCHOLAR AT U PUSHES HIS HOMELAND FOR TRUTH IN PERSECUTION OF ARMENIANS
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
February 19, 2007 Monday
Metro Edition
"A Shameful Act" has been described as a work of historical
"excavation." The term fits. What Taner Akcam has done in his book is
dig out the truth on the persecution of Turkey’s Armenian minority
from under a slag heap of government obfuscation in Ankara and
enervating apathy in the West. He’s done so at considerable personal
risk. Akcam, a Turk and a Muslim, has defied any number of laws and
social strictures in his homeland to remind the world of the tragedy
that unfolded in 1915. He views it as his moral duty, a matter of
honor. The Star Tribune’s Michael J. Bonafield talked with him in
his office at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the
University of Minnesota. Q&A, A14
AT A GLANCE
What happened? During the height of World War I, between 1915 and 1918,
the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire was forcibly removed
and sent into exile. Those who refused to go were executed on the
spot. Those who left were sent into the Syrian and Iraqi deserts
without food and water.
How many died? Estimates vary. The Armenian National Institute in
Washington says as many as 1.5 million were killed. The Turkish
government, successor to the Ottoman regime, says between 300,000
and 600,000 died. Eyewitnesses described mass murders with guns,
clubs and knives, mass drownings, crucifixions, and girls and women
who were raped to death.
War of words
Point: Armenians cite the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of Genocide, which defines genocide as "acts committed
with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group."
Counterpoint: Turkey vehemently denies the charge of genocide, saying
the Armenians died as a result of overzealous military units and the
depredations of unauthorized nationalist groups.