A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility |
|
|
|
| Title: | A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility |
| Author: | Taner Akcam |
| Publisher: | Picador |
| Type: | Book / Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 21 August, 2007 |
| ISBN / ISBN-13: | 080508665X / 9780805086652 |
| List Price: | $18.00 |
| You Save: | $5.76 |
| Amazon Price: | $12.24 |
|
This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $5.99.
|
The HTML code below can be pasted onto your web-site, your MySpace page, or blog - or any number of similar places - to create a link to this page:
If, instead of a text link, you'd like to create a link to this page which will display the book cover, if it's available, then the code below will do exactly that:
Check for the same book at these other US book sites:
• [ Abebooks ]
• [ Alibris ]
• [ Barnes & Noble ]
• [ Half.com ]
• [ Powells ]
… or check UK bookstores
|
Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
“The definitive account of the organized destruction of the Ottoman Armenians . . . No future discussion of the history will be able to ignore this brilliant book.”—Orhan Pamuk   Now, in a pioneering work of excavation, Turkish historian Taner Akçam has made unprecedented use of Ottoman and other sources—military and court records, parliamentary minutes, letters, and eyewitness reports—to produce a scrupulous account of Ottoman culpability. Tracing the causes of the mass destruction, Akçam reconstructs its planning and implementation by the departments of state, the military, and the ruling political parties, and he probes the multiple failures to bring the perpetrators to justice.  As the topic of the Armenian genocide provokes ever-greater passion and controversy around the world, Akçam’s work has only become more important and relevant. Beyond its timeliness, however, A Shameful Act is sure to take its lasting place as a classic and necessary work on the subject.
|
Other Items You May Enjoy:
Browse Books From These Related Subjects:
Customer Reviews:
• Best Explanation For The Turkish People's Denial Of The Genocide
25 September, 2009
This is an extremely well-researched book by a Turkish scholar who is obviously trying his best to make his countrymen see that denying the obvious will not advance their cause. It attempts to provide them with a reasonable (and more advantageous) route to acceptance and respect than does simply throwing money at American professors and congressmen to spout their propaganda. But apparently most Turkish readers are too thick to get it: either they haven't bothered to wade through the admittedly turgid writing to see what he's actually saying, or their knee-jerk reactions to his "anti-Turkishness" get in the way of their comprehension. ((Hey, Turks! Psst! He's actually provided you with the first and only plausible excuse for claiming ignorance of the facts! Read up!))
Unfortunately for the Turkish government, this excuse does not apply to them, most of them being at first the same cast of characters (with a change of name) as the perpetrators of the genocide, and, later, their descendants. But for the majority of the Turkish people, an explanation of sorts is made: In 1915, 95% of all Turks were illiterate. (Armenians, on the other hand, were not, education being a very basic and highly prized value.) After WWI, among the sweeping reforms instituted by the Young Turks was the switch from an Arabic to a Roman alphabet, thus rendering most original documents of the era incomprehensible even to educated modern-day Turks. Of COURSE they're going to deny such barbarism, butchery and inhumanity as being part of their recent history! Who wouldn't?! Who would willingly claim it? (I'm sure their grandparents came home and boasted of their cruelty!! "TODAY? Oh, I raped and beheaded a few 14-year-old Armenian girls and made their little brothers watch before raping them too and throwing them all into the river. How was YOUR day, dear?" Not.) Also worth noting: the grandchildren of Kurds living in the formerly Armenian towns of the Anatolian plateau are open with their admission of their grandfathers' complicity in the genocide: apparently these grandfathers complained to their families that they were promised a gold coin for each Armenian head, but the Turkish government never paid up! (And even now the Turks are trying to wipe out the Dersimi Kurds again (a repeat of their genocidal actions against the Kurds in 1934) by destroying the unique, beautiful and very fragile eco-system of the region by creating unnecessary dams - really just to cover up the evidence of their bloody past against both Armenians and Kurds. Somebody please stop them.)
- Amazon Customer Review
• Not So Objective Approach To The Issue.
30 March, 2009
I want you know that I am a Turk and naturally I have nationalistic feelings for my state. I can't deny what happened to Armenians. If I did I'd be ignorant. However, I can't ignore what Armenian folks had done to Turkish civilians and military in order to help invading Russian forces and establish a independent Armenian state. I have to say that it is sort of understandable. Every nation has the right for a desire to be independent. It is the same desire that made my ancestors so successful back in history.
I am not writing this to argue whether an act of genocide occurred. Nor I am arguing if the Turks had the right to exile and/or kill almost 1,000,000 Armenians in the process.
I am writing this to rebuke Taner Akcam's intention to hurt my nation's image. I claim that Akcam uses 'Armenian massacres' incident to hurt Turkey's image and to be able to say, "hey, look how evil the Turks are! They did all that to poor Armenians and they [the Turks] are practicing the same wrongdoings towards Kurds who reside in Turkey."
Taner Akcam is a Kurd and naturally a Kurdish nationalist. In late the 1970s he tried to promote his idea of an independent Kurdish state within the Turkish soil. He joined terrorist organizations such 'Dev-Genç' and later he openly supported Kurdistan Workers' Party, an organization designated as Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US State Department, EU and UK.
He was imprisoned due to his actions. He later escaped from prison and sought political asylum in Germany, where he met Vahakn N. Dadrian. Most of Akcam's writings are actually based on Dadrian's work. Akcam is not a historian; he doesn't know how to read old-Turkish or Armenian languages. How he obtains the historical evidence and documents he talks about in his book are questionable.
I have read his books and it is hard to believe he'd be internationally recognized figure if he wrote about something else or he was Armenian and wrote about the same things. The only reason he is well known is because he is one of the first "Turkish" scholars openly talks about Armenian massacres. It is easy to see how Armenians use him for their propaganda to say "hey! He is Turkish and even he admits they [the Turks] committed crimes against humanity." Well, he is not a Turk! He is a Turkish citizen who advocates an independent Kurdish State in Turkish soil. (How would you feel about Italians if they demand autonomous state in New York?)
Well, obviously the benefit is mutual. In return, he gets all that fame, recognition and money. Furthermore, He is also able to seek acknowledgment for Kurdish people's "sufferings" in Turkey.
It is unfortunate, but the western world doesn't care about Kurds as much as they care about the Armenians. Hmm, why is it so? Oh I know! It is because Kurds are generally Muslims and Armenians are Christians. (OMG, I guess it also explain why Western countries allowed the killings of Bosnian Muslims by Christian Serbs in mid 90s! Mid freaking 90s for god sake! But that's whole another subject, which I do not wish to go into detail now. For your information, I am not Muslim.)
You see, Akcam knows that, so he uses "Armenian genocide" claims to draw attention upon Turkey and hopes to earn the West's support for Kurds in Turkey.
[This is off topic, but I must inform you. During 90s Kurdistan Workers' Party members especially took aim at teachers and doctors in the eastern province. Fear of terrorism scared the investors away, which caused tremendous economic hardship. After all, Kurds in the region complained that the government doesn't provide enough for them]
We the Turks do know what really happened. It is true one million or so Armenians died, but it unfair to ignore about 3,000,000 Turks and Kurds who died due to famine, poor health conditions and of course the wars. We are ready to face the facts. My president repeatedly offered Robert Kocharyan to put both countries' resources together and investigate the events jointly, but he was continually rejected or ignored.
I want to conclude by saying Taner Akcam's books are highly biased. His work is political rather than scientific. There is much going on behind the curtains.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Ignorance Is Bliss
13 April, 2009
In response to the review above (One star):
It is painstakingly clear to me that you are not only ignorant, but guilty and resentful. NO ACT.... NO ACT is deserving of MASS MURDER and torture that your people have committed toward the Armenian people. If, in fact the"Italians wanted to claim independence in New York", would it then be acceptable for the "New Yorkers" to murder 75% of the Italian population??? What a ridiculous example, you fool.
Your feeble attempt to JUSTIFY the Armenian genocide is disgusting and inhumane. You are a perfect representation of the type of mentality and type of human being that breeds hate, ignorance, and greed. Your comments are saddening and exactly why your country has been so negatively stigmatized over the years. Does it really surprise you that your country's acts & policies are being viewed as "bad" or "wrong"? Listen to yourself... your comments are utterly disgusting, and there is no doubt in my mind that they are pitiful attempts to rationalize your guilt, and the heinous murderous acts your country has committed. SHAME ON YOU you pathetic excuse for a human being.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Was There Turkish Responsibility
25 July, 2008
The Turkish responsibility is a question everyone wants to ask on the fate of Armenians in World War One.
Taner Akcam definitely wondered but concluded since many Armenians died, then there must have been some plan to exterminate them based on the opinions of some Westerners who were trying to force the United States into World War One by distributing stories (grossly exaggerated) of atrocities of Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and the Ottoman Empire, since they were the Central Powers.
However, many US and German consuls who were able to stay in the Ottoman Empire to witness the relocation of Armenians reported to their ambassadors that the Ottoman authorities tried to help many of the Armenians but that there was such a food shortage, that even the Turkish soldiers went to war hungry. Sanitary conditions in Eastern Turkey were terrible, and the Ottoman Empire was bankrupt. The Ottoman Empire had a war on all 3 fronts. Taner Akcam, by ignoring these makes conclusions on 1915 based on the opinions of some anti-Turkish reporters and diplomats.
Considering, Taner Akcam did indeed escape from a Turkish prison, regardless of why he was imprisoned, it shows he truly has a strong grudge against the Turkish government. By writing books about the sensitive genocide debate, he tries to pollute opinions to support the thesis that there was an Armenian Genocide, even though so many Turks were killed before the relocations of Armenians and after the rebellions by Armenians for the purpose of creating a Free Armenia.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Just Check The Author's Background Before Wasting Your Time!
21 October, 2008
To be able to understand why this book is so severely biased, research and examine Taner Akcam's background. His illegal activities (communist-separatist) during his student years in Turkey and the subsequent events led to his hatred of his old country. Lost in World, he took a direction with only one goal in life: Revenge.
There is nothing new in this book, which wasn't already brought up by the other Armenian historians (and most of them are more credible). Unfortunately, among the western scholars of Middle East studies, Taner Akcam's mentor is one of the relatively less respected Armenian historians.
If you are willing to spend hours to learn about the Armenian views on this tragic story, do yourself a favor and at least read the books by credible Armenian historians like Ronald Suny or Ara Sarafian, for whom I have respect even if I don't fully agree with their views.
- Amazon Customer Review
|
