PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel.: 617-489-1610
Email: [email protected]
Taner akçam to speak at naasr about forced
assimilation and the armenian genocide
Dr. Taner Akçam, the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen
and Marian Mugar Professor of Modern Armenian History and Armenian
Genocide Studies at Clark University, will give a lecture entitled
“Forced Assimilation As a Structural Component of the Armenian
Genocide,” a presentation of research in progress, on Thursday, February
3, 2011, at 8:00 p.m., at the National Association for Armenian Studies
and Research (NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA.
Recent genocide scholarship has rediscovered the vital work of Raphael
Lemkin-not only as a legal scholar but also as an historian and social
scientist. His unpublished autobiography and work on the history of
genocide have given new inspirations and ideas to a new generation of
scholars to rethink and reevaluate existing scholarship.
Lemkin wrote: “Genocide has two phases: one, destruction of the national
pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the
national pattern of the oppressor.” Taner Akçam argues that this “the
second phase” can take many different forms, but without doubt,
assimilation is among the most effective ways to achieve the desired
result.
According to Akçam, because similarity to the Holocaust has tended to
be the yardstick against which occurrences of mass violence are
measured, in the Armenian case some of the most significant structural
components of the Armenian Genocide, such as religious conversion or the
forced assimilation of Armenian children into Muslim households, have
been ignored or deemphasized because they played no role in the
annihilation of the Jews in Europe.
Following Lemkin and, more importantly, based on newly-revealed
documents from the Ottoman archives, Akçam argues that assimilation in
fact was a structural element in the genocidal process and calls for
analysis and a reassessment of the methods and motivations of this
aspect of the Armenian Genocide.
Taner Akçam was born in Ardahan province, Turkey, in 1953. He is the
author of ten scholarly works of history and sociology, including From
Empire To Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide and A
Shameful Act: the Armenian Genocide and Turkish Responsibility, as well
as numerous articles in Turkish, German, and English.
Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The NAASR
Center is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next to the
U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building and in
adjacent areas. The lecture will begin promptly at 8:00 p.m.
More information about the lecture is available by calling 617-489-1610,
faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or writing to NAASR, 395
Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
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January 17, 2011
Belmont, MA
From: A. Papazian