14 03 2007 - NAASR ; SHAMEFUL ACT: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND THE QUESTION OF TURKISH RESPONSIBILITY

A Lecture at Harvard University's Center for
Government and International Studies by-Dr. Taner Akçam
Visiting Associate Professor, Dept. of History, University of Minnesota

A pioneer among scholars of Turkish origin, Dr. Taner
Akçam is the author of the recently published A
Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the
Question of Turkish Responsibility (Metropolitan
Books), a groundbreaking study that makes extensive,
unprecedented use of Ottoman and other sources
largely unexamined in English-language works.
Drawing on all the significant evidence – in Turkish
military and court records, parliamentary minutes,
eyewitness narratives, and previous works of
scholarship – Akçam has produced a scrupulous
account of Ottoman culpability.

The Unionists who carried out the Armenian
Genocide, the Nationalists of the early Turkish
Republic, and today’s denialists have all believed they
were saving the Turkish fatherland from partition by
the West. Any attempt to open a discussion on this
past has been denounced as a covert move in a
master plan to partition the country. This tangle of
past and present into a tight knot of self-
defensiveness has its roots in the breakup of the
Ottoman Empire. From late Ottoman times to the
present, there has been continuous tension between
the state’s concern for secure borders and society’s
need to come to terms with abuses of human rights.

The recent murder of Armenian newspaper editor
Hrant Dink in Istanbul, Turkey’s bid for entry into the
European Union, and the Armenian Genocide
recognition bill in the U.S. Congress have given
Akçam’s scholarly work of historical excavation a
remarkable timeliness as Turkey struggles to confront
its history.

Dr. Akçam is also the author of From Empire to
Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian
Genocide, Dialogue Across An International
Divide: Essays Towards a Turkish-Armenian Dialogue, as well as numerous other books and articles in Turkish, German, and English.

This event is open to the public (seating is limited to 150) and admission is free (donations accepted).
Following the lecture Dr. Akçam will be available to
sign copies of A Shameful Act, which will be
available for purchase outside the auditorium.
......................... Wednesday March 14, 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------ TIME: 7:30 p.m. LOCATION: Harvard University Center for Government and International Studies South Building, Auditorium S010 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA Seating is limited. Early arrival is strongly recommended. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Co-sponsored by Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), Harvard Armenian Society, Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard Zoryan Institute - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=n8z6r6bab.0.b8o8i6bab.6yserlbab.1020&ts=S0233&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zoryaninstitute.org National Association for Armenian Studies and Research - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=n8z6r6bab.0.gsf78obab.6yserlbab.1020&ts=S0233&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naasr.org

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