Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 14:40:04 -0600 From: Taner Akcam The University of Minnesota and Metropolitan Books have announced the publication of my new book,/ A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility./ Please see the press release below. Best regards Taner Akcam For immediate release Media contacts: Kelly O'Brien, U of M College of Liberal Arts, 612-624-4109 or obrie136 AT umn DOT edu Jessica Firger, Henry Holt and Company, 646-307-5237 or jessica DOT firger AT hholt DOT com *New Book by U of M Historian Proves Turkey's Role in Armenian Genocide* Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (November 10, 2006) - Taner Akcam, a University of Minnesota visiting professor of history, has written the definitive book proving the intent of the Ottoman Turks in carrying out the 1915 genocide against the Armenians. _A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility_ makes unique, groundbreaking use of Turkish, European, and American records to finally tell the full story of how and why the Ottoman Turkish Government attempted to exterminate their Armenian citizens. The first Turkish scholar to use the word "genocide" when describing the annihilation of the Armenians in 1915 and the first scholar of any nationality to uncover the significant evidence, Akcam follows the chain of events which led to the killings and reconstructs their systematic orchestration by government officials, civil servants, party hacks, state-run militias, and the army. Piecing together the story through meticulous research and an array of previously unseen documents, Akcam also investigates the postwar efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice and articulates why they failed. _A Shameful Act_ is released at a critical time, when Turkey's past is affecting the country's application to join the European Union, and France is considering a law making denial of the Armenian genocide a crime. Prof. Akcam will discuss _A Shameful Act_ with U of M Department of History chair Eric Weitz at the University of Minnesota on November 29 at 7:30 p.m. in room 125 Nolte Center on the U's east bank campus. This event is free and open to the public, and copies of _A Shameful Act_ will be available for purchase and signing. Taner Akcam is available for interviews in Minneapolis. ### _About Taner Akcam_ Sociologist and historian Taner Akcam was born in the province of Ardahan, Turkey, in 1953. He became interested in Turkish politics at an early age. As the editor in chief of a student political journal, he was arrested in 1976 and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Amnesty International adopted him as one of their first prisoners of conscience, and a year later he escaped by digging a tunnel with a stove leg and fled to Germany, where he received political asylum. In 1988, Akcam began work as a research scientist at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. While researching the late Ottoman Empire and early Republic, especially the history of political violence and torture in Turkey, he became interested in the Armenian genocide. In 1996 he received his doctorate from the University of Hanover with a dissertation entitled /The Turkish National Movement and the Armenian Genocide Against the Background of the Military Tribunals in Istanbul Between 1919 and 1922./ Since 2002 he has been a visiting associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota. He is generally considered the first Turkish scholar to use the word "genocide" when describing what happened to the Armenians in 1915. Akcam is the author of ten books and numerous articles in Turkish, German, English, and other languages. _Dialogue across an International Divide: Essays towards a Turkish-Armenian Dialogue_ has been translated into Hebrew. _A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility_ will also be translated into Italian, Polish, and French. Orhan Pamuk says, " 'A Shameful Act' is the definitive account of the organized destruction of the Ottoman Armenians written by a brave Turkish scholar who has devoted his life to chronicling the events. No future discussion of the history will be able to ignore this brilliant book." _Reviews of _A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility_ /The New Yorker/ (November 6, 2006): _http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/061106crbo_books2_ /The Economist/ (October 19, 2006): "timely and well-researched" -- Taner Akcam Visiting Associated Professor History Department Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies University of Minnesota 100 Nolte Center 315 Pillsbury Drive SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 tel (612)624-2988 fax (612)626-9169