Turkey vs. Taner Akcam (again)
The first Turkish professor to recognize the Armenian genocide as such has been charged for “insulting Turkishness” in Turkey for a newspaper article where Taner Akcam mentioned “the Armenian genocide.”
Taner Akcam, who teaches at the University of Minnesota, has been in exile for many years. Although he has spent youth years in a Turkish jail, this is the first incident when the famous historian is charged for referring to the Armenian Genocide in a Turkish newspaper.
Akcam’s new “Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of the Turkish Responibility” book has made news from The New York Times to local newspapers around America.
I hope he will not have to go to Turkey for his trial in mid-April because he has been announced as our speaker on the Armenian Genocide at the Jewish Mizel Museum of Denver, Colorado, on April 15, 2007.
The Republic of Turkey denies that its ancestor Ottoman Empire committed genocide against its Armenian citizens during and after WWI. To say the genocide did place is a federal crime in Turkey.
Thanks to Lou Ann Matossian for forwarding the news item from Groong.
borat on 12 Jan 2007 at 1:52 am #
eeez nice!
Atol Furan on 23 Jun 2007 at 4:37 pm #
Get this: There is no such thing as Turkishness as there are no Frenchness, Americaness, Britishnes, etc. According to Turkish Penal Code article 301 it is a crime to insult “Turks”. There are almost identical laws in many European countries. And nowadays you can not even joke about America because it instantly becomes a matter of “national secutrity” doesn’t it?
Atol Furan on 23 Jun 2007 at 4:43 pm #
Let it be known to all men that Taner Akcam is not a historian, not a professor, not a Turk, he is a layman, a terrorist and an Armenian.