Scholars to sue historian for singling out names

Friday, July 15, 2011

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL- Hurriyet Daily news

Leading Turkish historian on controversial Turkish-Armenian history, Taner Akçam is being taken to court in the US for singling out several Turkish and American academics for Armenian nationalist attack. “Armenian genocide issue is an extremely political field, yet I didn’t share any explicit names,” Akçam says

Akçam holds the chair in Armenian Genocide Studies in the history department at Clark University, Massachusetts.

Several academics have filed a U.S. lawsuit against Turkish historian Taner Akçam, who is known for his research on the Armenian issue, alleging that the scholar put them at risk of an Armenian nationalist attack following a speech last month.

“I merely shared a piece of information, which I had picked up [earlier,] during a speech I was delivering on the current state of affairs in Armenian genocide studies. I did not name any names and explicitly stated I did not want to leave anyone under suspicion,” Associate Professor Akçam from Clark University’s Department of History recently told the Hürriyet Daily News by email.

Akçam gave a speech at a conference at Arizona’s Glendale Public Library on June 14 during which a number of academics claim the historian singled them out as targets for extreme Armenian nationalists.

A Turkish political science expert from Utah University, Professor Hakan Yavuz, will be leading the suit on behalf of Professor Guenter Lewy from Massachusetts University, Associate Professor Edward Erickson from Virginia Marine Corps Command and Staff College and Associate Professor Jeremy Salt, who is currently working at Turkey’s Bilkent University.

During the speech, Akçam said he shared information given to him in December 2010 by a person who asked to remain anonymous that alleged that the Turkish Foreign Ministry was handing out hefty sums to academics to convince them to produce arguments to counter Armenian genocide claims stemming from World War I.

“I merely shared a piece of information; I wanted to provide a sample of how politics interferes in the academic sphere. Frankly, I have yet to understand [on what charges] they will be suing [me,]” Akçam said.

“My source said the documents received [by certain academics] in return for the money paid by the Turkish Foreign Ministry are [located] in the archives. I repeat once more; it is a journalist’s task to research this matter. I only transmitted the information. A journalist who was present at the conference made news out of [this] subject,” Akçam said.

Yavuz did not respond to questions posted by the Daily News via email.

Taner Akçam said he thought the information passed on to him by his source was safe, a factor which persuaded him to share it with his audience.

“Hakan Yavuz is a person with dubious credibility. I have yet to understand why he took [my words] upon himself. What he has said is so lowly as to not even warrant a reply,” he said. “The Armenian genocide is an extremely political field; politics is directly interfering with academic work. Armenian genocide studies have to cope with two distinct problems: One is about questions and problems [raised by] academic research itself, while the other [concerns] problems that emerge due to direct intervention by politics. The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s intervention is among the samples I have cited for this second category,” he said, adding that all he did was to repeat an ordinary fact that was already known to everyone else.

“One needs to rethink about things if the information supplied to me by my source is correct,” he said.

“I say it is necessary to re-examine because the activities undertaken in the U.S. by the Turkish Foreign Ministry must seriously be re-examined,” he added.