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PRESS RELEASE
MIDDLE EAST & MIDDLE EASTERN AMERICAN CENTER
The Graduate Center
City University of New York

365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016-4309
Tel: 212-817-7570
Fax: 212-817-1542
Email: [email protected]

Taner Akçam
Talk and Book Signing for
“From Empire to Republic:Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide”

Dr. Akçam will examine the relationship between Turkey’s transition
from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic in the opening decades of
the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide of 1915, and the process of
democratization in Turkey today. He will analyze the socio-political
and historical factors behind that complex and crucial history,
and provide a framework for understanding Turkish nationalism and
its on-going relationship to the Armenian Genocide.

Contextualizing the long-term development of Turkey and the reasons
for Turkish silence and denial regarding the Armenian Genocide,
Akçam will discuss the role of the Armenian Genocide in the process
of democratization in Turkey today. Through an exploration of the
obstacles to dialogue, he will offer some hope for reconciliation
between the Turkish and Armenian communities.

Taner Akçam is currently Visiting Associate Professor in the Department
of History, University of Minnesota. He was born in the province
of Kars-Ardahan in the northeast of Turkey and became interested in
Turkish politics at an early age. In 1977 he settled in Germany as a
political refugee. Akçam received his Ph.D. from Hanover University
with a dissertation titled, Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian
Genocide: On the Background of the Military Tribunals in Istanbul
Between 1919 and 1922. He has since published five books and half
a dozen articles on the topic in Turkish and German. From Empire to
Republic was published in March 2004 by Zed Books, London.

Friday June 4, 2004,6:30-8:30 pm
Elebash Recital Hall
Co-sponsored by the Zoryan Institute (Toronto)

Books will be available for purchase
Admission free, but voluntary donations welcome

www.web.gc.cuny.edu/memeac