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Taner Akçam

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Altuğ Taner Akçam (born October 23 1953) is a Turkish historian and sociologist. He is one of the first Turkish academics to acknowledge and openly discuss the Armenian Genocide, widely recognized as having been carried out by the Ottoman government in 1915.

Biography

Akçam was born in Ardahan, Turkey to Dursun and Perihan Akçam. He studied economics at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, and graduated in 1976. Later that year, while a graduate student at the same department, he received a nine-year prison sentence for his involvement in producing a student journal that focused on the treatment of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. This resulted in Amnesty International adopting him in 1976 as a prisoner of conscience. After one year he escaped and was granted political asylum in Germany. In August 1988 Akçam began work as a research scientist at the Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture. He received his PhD from the University of Hanover with a dissertation titled, Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide: On the Background of the Military Tribunals in Istanbul between 1919 and 1922. Akçam is a former student of fellow genocide scholar, Vahakn Dadrian. In 1997, a Dutch documentary titled "Een Muur van Stilte" (A Wall of Silence), written and directed by Dorothée Forma of the Humanist Broadcasting Foundation (Template:Lang-nl), was made about their "academic relationship."

Akçam was Visiting Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, United States before joining Clark University's Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Legal disputes

Akçam's political bent was evident during his university years. He was arrested in 1974 for participating in student protests of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. In 1975 he was arrested for distributing leaflets and placing posters around the city. (Akçam counters that "one had to obtain permission from what is now called the Security General Directorate’s Special Inspection Branch Directorate for the Associations, and that even with a special permit in hand, one could be arbitrarily arrested and apprehended at police headquarters for 3-5 days.") On March 9, 1976, soon after graduating from university, he was arrested for contributing to Devrimci Gençlik ("Revolutionary Youth"), the journal of a radical leftist organization aligned with Abdullah Ocalan, called Devrimci Yol ("Revolutionary Path"). He received a nine year sentence in early 1977, which he served for a year before escaping from Ankara Central Prison in March 12, 1977. He received asylum from Germany in 1978, where he obtained citizenship and resided until obtaining his doctorate degree in 1995.

More recently, Akçam has faced harassment, which he attributes to the Turkish authorities and Turkish American groups, as a result of his discussion of and willingness to recognize a genocide against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. On February 16, 2007 Akçam was detained at the Canadian border for nearly four hours. He was due to give a lecture at the invitation of the McGill University Faculty of Law and Concordia University. In explaining his detention, Taner Akçam says that Canadian authorities referred to an inaccurate, vandalized version of his biography on Misplaced Pages from around December 24, 2006, which called him a terrorist. The statements have since been deleted and the offending user account blocked from editing Misplaced Pages.

On February 18, 2007 he was also detained at the US border and has been so far unable to find out the reason for his being detained there. While on a lecture tour in 2007 he faced further harassment by various persons turning up and disrupting his various speaking engagements.

In January 2007, the government officially launched an investigation against Akçam regarding an October 6, 2006, newspaper column in the Turkish-Armenian journal Agos. In it Akçam criticized the prosecution of Agos managing editor Hrant Dink for using the term "genocide", regarding the Armenian Genocide. The use of the term was construed by the prosecutor's office as the criminal offense of "insulting Turkishness" under Article 301 of Turkey's penal code. Highlighting the term "genocide", Akçam declared himself an accessory to the charges against Hrant Dink, and urged readers to join in Dink's support. Later in January of 2007 an Istanbul court decided not to pursue the charges against Akçam.

Bibliography

References

  1. "Turkish Scholar Taner Akçam Lectures on New Book". Zoryan Institute. 2004-05-22. Retrieved 2008-07-01. Dr. Akçam is one of the first Turkish academics to acknowledge and discuss openly the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government in 1915.
  2. Auron, Yair. The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2003 p. 255 ISBN 0-7658-0834-X.
  3. Levene, Mark. Genocide in the Age of the Nation State: Volume 1: The Meaning of Genocide. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2005, p. 66 ISBN 1-8504-3752-1.
  4. Şişli State Head Prosecutor, Suspect’s Statement Form. Investigation № 2006/49047.
  5. ^ Schilling, Peter (2008). "Is It Still Genocide if Your Allies Did It?". Law & Politics. Retrieved 2008-05-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Christoff, Stefan (2007-02-22). "No shame in slaughter". Montreal Mirror. 22 (34). Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  7. Macmillan, Jonathan Q (2007-03-15). "Author Argues That Armenian Genocide Happened". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2008-05-15.
  8. Taner Akçam, Dr. phil., Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture Template:De icon
  9. Akçam, Taner (2000). "The process of state formation in Turkey". Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Research and Culture. Retrieved 2008-07-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  10. "Faculty: Taner Akcam , Ph.D." Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Clark University. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  11. Kouyoumdjian, Nina (2006-04-30). "Dadrian and Taner Akcam come to Harvard to Discuss Future of Turkey-Armenia Relations". Harvard Armenian Society. Retrieved 2008-08-19. Professor Akcam, one of Dadrian's former students...
  12. Ghazarian, Salpi Haroutinian (1999). "A Dutch Filmmaker". Armenian International Magazine. Retrieved 2008-08-19. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  13. "Bir Ziyaretin Dusundurdukleri" (in Turkish). 2000-04-11. Retrieved 2008-08-19. konusu, doktora tezimin yazimi sirasinda ... Amerika'da yasayan Ermeni asilli Prof. Dadrian ile kurdugum 'akademik iliski' idi.
  14. Drost, Inge (2006-12-21). "Impressive lecture by Akcam in Amsterdam". Den Haag, Netherlands: Abovian Armenian Cultural Association. Archived from the original on 2006-12-24. Retrieved 2008-08-21. This documentary film parallels the personal and professional lives of Armenian scholar Vahakn Dadrian and Turkish researcher Taner Akcam and their call for recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
  15. "Taner Akçam - scholar, author, ex-political prisoner, and courageous champion of civil liberties - joins the Strassler Center". Office of University Communications : Press Release. Clark University. 2008-06-17. Retrieved 2008-07-02. Clark University has appointed prominent historian Taner Akçam to occupy the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marion Mugar Professorship in Armenian Genocide Studies
  16. Whittell, Giles (2007-08-18). "History that dares to speak its name review". Times Online. p. Non-fiction book reviews. Retrieved 2008-08-18. ...a 1974 arrest for protesting at Turkey's invasion of northern Cyprus...
  17. Akçam, Taner. Nazım Dikbaş (ed.). "Holdwater: 'Murad Gümen: The Mysterious American Who Drives the Armenians Mad'". Originally published in Agos as "Holdwater: The Mysterious American who Drives Armenians Mad," May 18, 2007, and “Holdwater: The Golden Rule,” May 25, 2007, by Ali Murat Güven.
  18. "Taner Akçam'a Özgurluk". Devrimci Gençlik (in Turkish). 1976. Dergimiz Sorumlu Yazı İşleri müdürü Taner Akçam... {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) (Template:Lang-en)
  19. ^ "Taner Akçam: Biography". İletişim Yayınları (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  20. "The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Sources" (PDF). Mershon Center. Ohio State University Knowledge Bank. 2006-01-11. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
  21. "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility". Armenian Studies Program. California State University, Fresno. 2007-01-21. Retrieved 2008-08-18. As the editor in chief of a student political journal
  22. "ST Center for International Studies Presents Taner Akcam, author of "A Shameful Act"" (PDF). University of St. Thomas. 2007-02-19. Retrieved 2008-08-18. In the mid-1970s, Akçam became a leading member of the militant group Dev Yol (Devrimci Yol-Revolutionary Path) and the editor of its periodical Devrimci Genclik Dergisi (Revolutionary Youth Magazine). {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 71 (help)
  23. Burgess, Mark (2002-05-21). "Terrorism - PKK (a.k.a KADEK): Kurdish Worker's Party (a.k.a Kurdish Freedom and Democracy Congress)". Terrorism Project. Center for Defense Information. Retrieved 2008-07-12.
  24. David Munro, Alan John Day (2008-07-12). A World Record of Major Conflict Areas. St. James Press. p. 143. ISBN 1558620664. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  25. Özcan, Ali Kemal (2006). Turkey's Kurds: A Theoretical Analysis of the PKK and Abdullah Öcalan. Routledge. p. 200. ISBN 0415366879.
  26. Karpat, Kemal H. (1975). "Turkish and Arab-Israeli Relations". Turkey's Foreign Policy in Transition: 1950-1974. Brill Archive. p. 131. ISBN 9004043233.
  27. Ozcan, Emine (2007-09-04). "Akçam: I Have Never Been So Scared". bianet. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
  28. Akçam, Taner (2007-03-17). "A shameful campaign". ZNet. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  29. ^ Fisk, Robert (2007-04-21). "Caught in the deadly web of the Internet". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  30. Jay, Paul (2007-06-22). "A question of authority". CBC News. In Depth: Technology. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  31. Ral315 (2007-04-23). "Historian detained after his Misplaced Pages article is vandalized". Misplaced Pages Signpost. Retrieved 2008-07-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  32. Cole, Juan (2007-04-14). "Detained in Two Worlds: The Taner Akçam Story". Informed Comment. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  33. Akçam, Taner (2006-10-06). "Hrant Dink, 301 ve bir suç duyurusu". Agos. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Text "title" ignored (help) (Hrant Dink, 301, and a criminal complaint)
  34. Labi, Aisha (2008-05-16). "Turkish Scholar Sues to Overturn Law on 'Denigrating Turkishness'". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
  35. "Turkish historian cleared of charges for declaring 'genocide'". The New Anatolian. 2007-04-02. Archived from the original on 2008-05-15.
  36. Atmaca, Efnan (2008-01-25). "Amaç Ermenileri yok etmekti". Radikal (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-07-12. (English translation in The Armenian Reporter: The objective was to get rid of all Armenians, page A3, February 16, 2008. Accessed July 12, 2008.)
  37. "Minnesota Book Awards". Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
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