A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility

Taner Akcam

Macmillan, Aug 21, 2007 - History - 483 pages

"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

Beginning in 1915, under the cover of a world war, some one million Armenians were killed through starvation, forced marches, and mass acts of slaughter. Although Armenians and the judgment of history have long held the Ottoman powers responsible for genocide, modern Turkey has rejected any such claim.

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.

What people are saying

A SHAMEFUL ACT: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility

User Review  - Kirkus

Turkish historian Akçam capably refutes those who deny the Armenian genocide, who will probably not change their minds.No one knows how many Armenians died at Turkish hands in the 1910s, but the ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - jcovington - LibraryThing

This is a very important book. The violent massacre of the Armenians was a tragedy on par with the Holocaust, yet the perpetrators not only escaped real justice, but a century later still get to deny ...

Contents

• Authors Note: 15
• THE DECISION FOR GENOCIDE: 109
• THE INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTION: 205
• The Turkish National Movements Position: 303
• The Final Phase of the Trials: 349
• Why the Postwar Trials Failed: 368
• Notes: 377
• Acknowledgments: 465

About the author

Born in Ardahan province, Turkey, in 1953, Taner Akçam is the author of ten scholarly works of history and sociology, including A Shameful Act, as well as numerous articles in Turkish, German, and English. He currently teaches at Clark University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility
• Author: Taner Akcam
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2007
• ISBN: 080508665X, 9780805086652
• Length: 483 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Eastern; History / Middle East / Turkey & Ottoman Empire; History / Modern / 20th Century; Political Science / Genocide & War Crimes