Turk studies Armenian genocide

By Polina Olsen

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Taner Akcam had no problem publishing his book in Turkey. “But, you have to be ready for a trial and for them to kill you,” he explained.

Author of “A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility,” the University of Minnesota history professor came to Oregon State University for the annual Holocaust Memorial Program. More than 200 students, professors and people from Oregon’s Armenian community packed the auditorium for his May 1 lecture.

Born in Turkey, Akcam’s political problems began when he became editor-in-chief of a university newspaper, Revolutionary Youth. At that time, the word “Kurd” was illegal (they were Mountain Turks), and writing on class distinctions was against the law.

Akcam was sentenced to eight years in prison for violating such codes. He escaped through tunnels after a year. When he fled to Germany, authorities arrested him for illegally entering the country. Amnesty International intervened, and Germany granted him asylum.

Akcam first learned of the Armenian genocide while attending university in Germany. His thesis “Violence in the Ottoman Empire,” led to his life’s work. “I think that if the Turkish government hadn’t attacked me so badly, I wouldn’t have continued,” he told the audience when asked what motivated him to choose a life of personal sacrifice and risk.

The Turkish government denies the Armenian genocide, and mentioning it can be a crime. Visits to family and friends in Turkey always required precautions like moving every two days and avoiding publicity.

Then, in 2007, Hrant Dink, editor of a Turkish-Armenian newspaper, was assassinated outside his Istanbul office. Now, Akcam doesn’t visit Turkey at all.

“This is Armenian Genocide 101,” Akcam said, when he introduced the lecture. As he provided insight into the Turkish denial, he emphasized the pre-World War I Ottoman context. Turks remember this period as a life and death struggle to preserve their homeland, he said.

For 200 years, Akcam noted, the empire had been shrinking. With European support, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece had broken away. The remaining core area contained 15 million Turks—and between 1.3 and 2.4 million Armenians who wanted autonomy. Turks considered them a fifth column and traitors. When Turkey allied with Germany during the war, they accused Armenians of aiding the Russian Army.

Ostensibly, their plan called for relocating Armenians from the sensitive war zone to the Syrian and Iraqi deserts. According to Akcam, there were “separate, unofficial orders for annihilation of the deportees” issued by a government-backed organization and sent through party channels.

Armenians were executed, or sent out on boats and drowned. During forced marches from ancestral towns and villages, they were ambushed and murdered. According to the BBC, up to 1,500,000 Armenians perished in the Armenian Genocide.

After the lecture, a group gathered for an impromptu discussion. One Turkish student wanted to know why acknowledging genocide was important.

“The word genocide makes everyone nervous,” he said.

“We’ve been called liars for 93 years by the Turkish government,” said Rafael Saakyan, who grew up in Armenia. “They say, ‘that never happened … you guys were the aggressors and the terrorists.’ This is closing the wound in my family. My great-grandfather was 7 years old and survived by hiding under the bodies of his parents. Almost 70,000 people died in his town. He was one of only three who survived.”

Saakyan admires Akcam who speaks out “despite the persecution and death threats. It’s ironic to have a Turkish historian who was exposed to the Armenian genocide outside of Turkey,” Saakyan said. “Now he is an exile from his own country.”