{"id":15961,"date":"2009-11-06T00:49:30","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T22:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=15961"},"modified":"2023-07-26T11:07:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T08:07:49","slug":"akcam-lectures-on-the-armenian-genocide-at-la-salle-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2009\/11\/06\/akcam-lectures-on-the-armenian-genocide-at-la-salle-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Akcam Lectures on the Armenian Genocide at La Salle University"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Asbarez Staff<\/span> on Nov 3rd, 2009 and filed under Community<\/span>, News<\/span>.<\/p>\n


\n<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/span>PHILADELPHIA\u2014Before a standing-room only audience at La Salle University, Dr. Taner Akcam, the first scholar of Turkish origin to publish on the heretofore-taboo topic of the Armenian Genocide, explained the historical background and causes of the genocide.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the university\u2019s Diplomat-in-Residence program (DRP), Akcam discussed how concerns about Armenian independence and the intervention of foreign powers on behalf of the Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire led the Young Turks to plan and proceed with the elimination of Armenians and other Ottoman Christians. He also explained that Turkey\u2019s denial of the genocide is the result of the role played in it by the founders of the Turkish republic.<\/p>\n

Dr. Cornelia Tsakiridou, director of La Salle\u2019s DRP program and an associate professor of philosophy at the university, explained that \u201cthe idea of bringing Dr. Akcam here was to expose students to the historical arguments of the case and do so by inviting a prominent historian who has specialized on this subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor Akcam brings to the study of the destruction of Turkey\u2019s Armenian minority his expertise as a historian, a number of highly praised books, but also his Turkish background\u2014a combination that has made him unpopular in Turkey, where the use of the term \u2018genocide\u2019 to describe the destruction is subject to prosecution for insulting Turkish identity,\u201d said Tsakiridou.<\/p>\n

The program was planned with Vince Kling of La Salle\u2019s foreign language department, who is teaching a course on memoirs and using Peter Balakian\u2019s autobiography Black Dog of Fate, the story of an American of Armenian descent who comes to terms with the genocide that affected his family.<\/p>\n

Akcam is an associate professor of history at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. Since 1990, he has focused his research on Turkish nationalism and the Armenian Genocide, with 11 books and numerous articles to his credit, starting with his first book, Turk Ulusal Kimligi ve Ermeni Sorunu (The Armenian Question and Turkish National Identity), published in 1992. Three years later, at the International Genocide Conference in Yerevan, Armenia, Akcam\u2019s presentation on Turkish nationalism and the Armenian Genocide marked the first public acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide by a Turkish scholar.<\/p>\n

Akcam\u2019s life and work have been featured in four critically acclaimed documentary films. In 2007, the Armenian Bar Association honored him with the Hrant Dink Freedom Award, calling him \u201ca champion of historical truth about the Armenian Genocide.\u201d He has also been honored by the Harvard University Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations and the Massachusetts State Legislature. He serves on the editorial board of \u201cGenocide Studies & Prevention,\u201d the official journal of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS).<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

———- Forwarded message ———-
\nFrom: Ozer Aksoy<\/strong>
\nDate: Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 12:54 PM
\nSubject:\u00a0 Akcam lecture (see inside)
\nTo:<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

———- Forwarded message ———-
\nFrom: Metin Mangir<\/strong>
\nDate: Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 12:37 PM
\nSubject:\u00a0 Akcam lecture (see inside)
\nTo: paxturcica@googlegroups.com<\/p>\n

Actually this article clearly details how the people responsible was
\ntried and sentenced by the Ottoman government, which supposedly ordered
\nthe annihilation of Ottoman Armenians. If indeed Ottoman government had
\nsuch an intention, why would it try these people. \u00a0We can use it to our
\nadvantage.<\/p>\n

At the end of the article it makes an unsubstantiated declaration
\nwithout giving any names so that they can accuse Ataturk and \u00a0Turkish
\nRepublic :
\n\/”Most of the officials found guilty during the trials, however, became
\nassociates of Kemal Ataturk, who set up a rebel government in Ankara and
\nexpelled the allies from Anatolia. After the establishment of the
\nRepublic of Turkey in 1923, these criminals were given important
\npositions in the Turkish military and state.”<\/p>\n

Metin
\n\/
\nJavid Huseynov wrote:
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\n> *Asbarez Post
\n> * \u00a0 \u00a0 Tuesday November 03, 2009
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\n> \u00a0 Forward this email to a Friend
\n> <http:\/\/ui.constantcontact.com\/sa\/fwtf.jsp?m=1102083584005&a=1102805029147&ea=arzu300%40yahoo.com>
\n> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<https:\/\/visitor.r20.constantcontact.com\/manage\/optin\/ea?v=001GfcdKfB8aovLbFENedWMuxD0XQcuKFGQRNI-A1kom_1OjP-0x9djU7YVy7BEGnZbSLnq2sG5PL8dDfMwrXaLzZHH3a3FOZE0HmdQPj3fqq0%3D<\/span>>
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By Asbarez Staff on Nov 3rd, 2009 and filed under Community, News. PHILADELPHIA\u2014Before a standing-room only audience at La Salle University, Dr. Taner Akcam, the first scholar of Turkish origin to publish on the heretofore-taboo topic of the Armenian Genocide, explained the historical background and causes of the genocide. Speaking at the university\u2019s Diplomat-in-Residence program […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":76351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[145,1571,78,120,204,1018,2129],"class_list":["post-15961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","tag-barack-obama","tag-ahmet-davutoglu","tag-ergenekon","tag-gulen","tag-nagorno-karabakh","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-turkey-and-armenia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}