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Taner Akçam

A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility Paperback – August 21, 2007

by Taner Akcam (Author)

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"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.

Print length

496 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

August 21, 2007
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.11 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

080508665X
ISBN-13

978-0805086652
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Akçam is the first Turkish scholar to call the massacres genocide; his impressive achievement here is to shine fresh light on exactly why and how the Ottoman Empire deported and slaughtered the Armenians."
―The New York Times Book Review

"No scholar has mined and synthesized the Ottoman Empire's internal documents and memoirs with Akçam's assiduous skill.... A Shameful Act is destined to become a touchstone for other studies.... Be grateful for Taner Akçam: he speaks the holy truth."
―Philadelphia Inquirer

"No one knows how many Armenians died at Turkish hands in the 1910s, but the number almost certainly exceeds one million. Akçam, writing from the safe distance of the University of Minnesota, has worked through thousands and thousands of documents to find concrete evidence thereof, against considerable difficulty. "
―Publishers Weekly

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; 1st edition (August 21, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 080508665X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0805086652
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.11 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,070,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #589 in Turkey History (Books)
- #1,996 in World War I History (Books)
- #2,161 in Middle Eastern Politics

Customer Reviews:
80 ratings

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4 star		25%
3 star		2%
2 star		2%
1 star		5%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Brian Koontz

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book is a wonderful history of pre WWI Armenia

One person found this helpful

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Vahé Achikian

The Armenian Genocide told by a brave Turkish historian

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2015

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Finally a brave and matter-of-fact account of the history of WW1 Ottoman Turkey and the evil Tehcir Law which led to the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1916 and the extetmination and forced deportation of Ottoman Armenians from Turkey. İndeed Dr. Akçam makes no excuses or rebuttals for justifying the massacres and ateocities but rather in full honesty retells the true history of the Armenian massacres of WW1 on the lands of Ottoman Turkey based on his own research and to-date unrevealed Ottoman historic archives and documents from the 1913-1921 period. This is a must-read for all Ottoman historians, particularly for liars and deniers of truth such as Justin McCarthy and Stanford Shaw's bastards that are alive today.

7 people found this helpful

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MarchHare

Best Explanation for the Turkish People's Denial of the Genocide

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2009

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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.)

18 people found this helpful

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José Sarukhán

a very good, well researched and o the point account of ...

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2015

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a very good, well researched and to the point account of the planning and execution of the first genocide of the twentieth century. We have the moral obligation not to ignore and to remember these "dark sides" of the history oh humankind

14 people found this helpful

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BernardZ

Yes a shameful act

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2008

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This obviously is a political book on a controversial past event. Since I know little on this subject so I bought this book to learn more on this subject but unfortunately it means that I cannot assess the facts of the book properly.

The argument of the writer is that a dangerous shift took place in the Ottoman Empire and its policy changed to a Turkish nationalism. To these Turkish nationalist the existence of the Armenians in Turkish areas was a threat to this state so from about 1915 to the early 1920's they created a planned genocide of the Armenians.

After reading the book which I found tedious in parts, I am not convinced that he has proved his argument that a genocide took place.

Genocide surprisingly is a difficult case to prove. Partly because fortunately we have few examples as they are not that common. However also because the evidence is suppressed and denied for example during WW2, the Nazi destroyed the evidence while they did it and after almost all senior Nazis denied knowledge or responsibility for it.

What the book does show is that last scale deportations of the Armenians took place and that these did result in large-scale crimes against them which include robbery, kidnapping and a million murders. Having said this, I am not so sure it matters whether a genocide took place, clearly many people were murdered because they were Armenians.

After 1920s when they should have some justice, it was denied. It is a shame that so few people that did these robbery, kidnapping and murders were punished.

27 people found this helpful

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Geraldtonjjeeper

Genocide, hidden and denied!

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2014

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Under the cover of WWI the Turkish (Ottoman) government set about deliberately wiping the Armenian people from the face of the earth! With careful planning they were able to kill about 2,000,000 Armenians.....primarily in a religious pogrom......but also under the guise of resisting an insurgency, a fight for independence for a people who had been subject to repression for several hundred years, not only by the Turks but by countless other nations over millenia. Living as they do at the meeting of Asia and Europe they had been trampled by invaders since the days of the Persian Empire!
As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, losing the Balkan states, then the north African part of their empire the Turks felt threatened when the Armenians started agitating for independence. Using "Turkish" identity as an excuse, they very nearly wiped Armenia and it's population from the map!
This is another story of how nationalism, patriotism and religion can be used to justify the demonisation and objectification of a whole population and allow one group of people to attempt to wipe out another.
This has happened throughout history, but so many times in just the 20th Century!

Will we never learn?

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

annieo

A historically important book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book is a must read for anyone with an interest in ethnic conflict and the events leading to genocide. The words 'never again' have been spoken after many genocides; time has proven that again and again we fail to learn lessons from history. Refusing to acknowledge a genocide even happened further paves the way for more crimes against humanity. This book explains in a scholarly but readable manner the unique set of circumstances that paved the way to a genocide of one and a half million people, and perhaps gives some insight into why modern day Turkey still refuses to acknowledge the event. A dense book, but very well researched and a story skilfully told. Highly recommended.

9 people found this helpful

iscqpk

A moving Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

A moving book. Shame on denying Turks to what they have done to Armenians, and still continue with their policies, with Kurds, and the rest of Turkish Population.

Wissam

Very detailed and compelling.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2017

Verified Purchase

Very detailed and compelling. I've often heard the discussion as to whether it was a massacre or genocide, Taner's use of Turkish sources shows it clearly was genocide. Shame the country refuses to officially acknowledge this as it's a refusal to learn from history.

4 people found this helpful

charlie

Very academic!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

Very academic and honest!

One person found this helpful

lrw

Good service

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

A disaster well told.

One person found this helpful

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