Tweet
TANER AKCAM: "TURKEY BRIBES US SCHOLARS TO DENY THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE"
AZG DAILY
15-07-2011
Prof. Taner Akcam dropped a bombshell during a lecture at the Glendale
Public Library last month, when he revealed that a confidential source
in Istanbul had informed him about the Turkish government's scheme
to bribe American scholars to deny the Armenian Genocide.
Dr. Akcam, holder of the Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide
Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., stated that 'the
Turkish government is following a very systematic and aggressive
policy in the US,' by attempting to cast doubt on the veracity of the
Armenian Genocide. Ankara's grand scheme is to make Turkish denialist
claims as widely acceptable as the belief that the events of 1915
constituted genocide. Moreover, through a series of lawsuits in US
courts, Turkey and its proxies are trying to present any criticism
of denialist scholars and exclusion of revisionist materials from
university programs as suppression of 'academic freedom', Harut
Sassounian, Publisher of The California Courier, says.
According to the source, Prof. Akcam, one of the first Turkish
scholars to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, related to his
audience that during his visit to Istanbul last December, he had
a private conversation with a person who had 'inside information'
regarding the Turkish Foreign Ministry's activities in the United
States on subject of the Armenian Genocide. Dr. Akcam's confidential
source told him that sometime in 2004-2005, an American university
professor had met with 'authorities connected with the Turkish Foreign
Ministry.' At that meeting, the professor told his Turkish hosts that
'Turkey didn't have a systematic program on the academic level with
which to counter the claims of an Armenian Genocide,' and that 'the
genocide claim is well established at this point,' telling them that
'there's very little' they can do 'by trying to confront it head on.'
Dr. Akcam was privately informed that the American professor made the
following recommendation to Turkish officials: 'The thing you need to
do is to dig a ditch in front of all the genocide claims; you need to
create doubt by writing scholarly works which will awaken that doubt.'
Dr. Akcam interpreted these words to mean that 'by producing and
encouraging new academic works,' American scholars could 'normalize
the idea that 1915 was not genocide, just as the belief that it was
genocide has become accepted.'
While it is commonly assumed that the Turkish government provides
financial incentives to scholars worldwide to publish articles and
books denying the Armenian Genocide, this is the first time that a
knowledgeable Turkish insider has confirmed these assumptions. The
confidential source told Dr. Akcam that the Turkish Foreign Ministry
accepted the American scholar's proposal and 'transferred large sums
of money to the US.' The informant revealed to Dr. Akcam the names
of American academics who received funds to write books denying the
Armenian Genocide, and disclosed that 'there are documents signed by
their own hand and that these receipts are now in the files of the
Foreign Ministry's records.'
In his lecture, Dr. Akcam stated that he did not want 'to put any
academic under a cloud of suspicion.' However, when he connected
the information received from his Istanbul source to some recent
publications, 'a disturbing picture emerges as far as Armenian Genocide
research is concerned.'
Dr. Akcam then referred to Michael Gunter's recent book, 'Armenian
History and the Question of Genocide,' as a possible 'example of this
approach.' The website of the book's publisher, Palgrave Macmillan,
stated: 'Although as many as 600,000 of them [Armenians] died during
World War I, it was neither a premeditated policy perpetrated by the
Ottoman Turkish government nor an event unilaterally implemented
without cause. Of course, in no way does this excuse the horrible
excesses that were committed.'
Prof. Akcam further observed that the four academics -- Hakan Yavuz
of University of Utah, Guenter Lewy of University of Massachusetts,
Jeremy Salt of Bilkent University, Ankara, and Edward J. Ericson of
Marine Corps Command & Staff College, Virginia -- who praised Gunter's
book, 'are well known for their denialist position and works regarding
the genocide of 1915.' Although Prof. Akcam did not wish to make
'an accusation against the book's writer,' he stated: 'the strange
similarities between what I was told in confidence in Istanbul and what
appears on the jacket cover of that book gave me pause, that's all.'
From: Baghdasarian
AZG DAILY
15-07-2011
Prof. Taner Akcam dropped a bombshell during a lecture at the Glendale
Public Library last month, when he revealed that a confidential source
in Istanbul had informed him about the Turkish government's scheme
to bribe American scholars to deny the Armenian Genocide.
Dr. Akcam, holder of the Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide
Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., stated that 'the
Turkish government is following a very systematic and aggressive
policy in the US,' by attempting to cast doubt on the veracity of the
Armenian Genocide. Ankara's grand scheme is to make Turkish denialist
claims as widely acceptable as the belief that the events of 1915
constituted genocide. Moreover, through a series of lawsuits in US
courts, Turkey and its proxies are trying to present any criticism
of denialist scholars and exclusion of revisionist materials from
university programs as suppression of 'academic freedom', Harut
Sassounian, Publisher of The California Courier, says.
According to the source, Prof. Akcam, one of the first Turkish
scholars to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, related to his
audience that during his visit to Istanbul last December, he had
a private conversation with a person who had 'inside information'
regarding the Turkish Foreign Ministry's activities in the United
States on subject of the Armenian Genocide. Dr. Akcam's confidential
source told him that sometime in 2004-2005, an American university
professor had met with 'authorities connected with the Turkish Foreign
Ministry.' At that meeting, the professor told his Turkish hosts that
'Turkey didn't have a systematic program on the academic level with
which to counter the claims of an Armenian Genocide,' and that 'the
genocide claim is well established at this point,' telling them that
'there's very little' they can do 'by trying to confront it head on.'
Dr. Akcam was privately informed that the American professor made the
following recommendation to Turkish officials: 'The thing you need to
do is to dig a ditch in front of all the genocide claims; you need to
create doubt by writing scholarly works which will awaken that doubt.'
Dr. Akcam interpreted these words to mean that 'by producing and
encouraging new academic works,' American scholars could 'normalize
the idea that 1915 was not genocide, just as the belief that it was
genocide has become accepted.'
While it is commonly assumed that the Turkish government provides
financial incentives to scholars worldwide to publish articles and
books denying the Armenian Genocide, this is the first time that a
knowledgeable Turkish insider has confirmed these assumptions. The
confidential source told Dr. Akcam that the Turkish Foreign Ministry
accepted the American scholar's proposal and 'transferred large sums
of money to the US.' The informant revealed to Dr. Akcam the names
of American academics who received funds to write books denying the
Armenian Genocide, and disclosed that 'there are documents signed by
their own hand and that these receipts are now in the files of the
Foreign Ministry's records.'
In his lecture, Dr. Akcam stated that he did not want 'to put any
academic under a cloud of suspicion.' However, when he connected
the information received from his Istanbul source to some recent
publications, 'a disturbing picture emerges as far as Armenian Genocide
research is concerned.'
Dr. Akcam then referred to Michael Gunter's recent book, 'Armenian
History and the Question of Genocide,' as a possible 'example of this
approach.' The website of the book's publisher, Palgrave Macmillan,
stated: 'Although as many as 600,000 of them [Armenians] died during
World War I, it was neither a premeditated policy perpetrated by the
Ottoman Turkish government nor an event unilaterally implemented
without cause. Of course, in no way does this excuse the horrible
excesses that were committed.'
Prof. Akcam further observed that the four academics -- Hakan Yavuz
of University of Utah, Guenter Lewy of University of Massachusetts,
Jeremy Salt of Bilkent University, Ankara, and Edward J. Ericson of
Marine Corps Command & Staff College, Virginia -- who praised Gunter's
book, 'are well known for their denialist position and works regarding
the genocide of 1915.' Although Prof. Akcam did not wish to make
'an accusation against the book's writer,' he stated: 'the strange
similarities between what I was told in confidence in Istanbul and what
appears on the jacket cover of that book gave me pause, that's all.'
From: Baghdasarian