IT IS OFFICIAL
TANER AKCAM IS PAID BY ARMENIANS

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by Ergün Kırlıkovalı

It is documented now: Taner Akcam, one of the most ardent supporters of the official Armenian position on the Turkish-Armenian conflict, is a paid Armenian agent. (Please see the letters below.)

One of the first Turkish academics to acknowledge and openly promote the Armenian Genocide, the “poster boy” of sorts for the Armenian lobby, turns out to be a gun-for-hire, after all. Well, well, well… What do you know?

Surprised? Not really sure. I have always suspected that but never really had the concrete proof. Not until I received a letter from the legal counsel of the University of Minnesota, that is, responding to a query of mine (below.) It is an established fact now; Armenians are paying Akcam. And you can take that to the bank—like Akcam is taking Cafesjian and Zoryan checks to the bank, thank you.

Here is a little inside joke: like most Armenian names, ending with “ian”, Cafesjian is also Turkish. “Cafes”, or more correctly, “kafes” means “cage” in Turkish, most commonly the one used for fowl and “Cafesji”, a cagemaker. It looks like the Armenian “cagemakers” finally “caged” a good one.

Akcam is here, he is there, he is everywhere. One week in Long beach, California, next week in New Orleans. Then New York, Toronto… All this, of course, begs the question: how does Akcam ever manage to find time to critically reading all those books listed page after page in the references part of his books, let alone commenting, debating, correcting, teaching, researching, and other such scholarly chores? Assuming Akcam reads a book a week—which is extremely fast for critical reading of a scholarly work—Akcam would need at least two human life-spans to complete his reading list.

Since it is a well known fact that Akcam was engaged in Marxist-Leninist terrorism in 1970s in Turkey (where he was caught, tried, convicted, imprisoned, and escaped from his prison cell into Germany;) and seeking asylum followed by higher education in Sociology (not history) in Germany in 1980s and until mid 1990s, he must have been able to devote only the decade or so of his life to conduct research in his newly discovered passion: history of the Trkish-Armenian conflict, or more correctly, the official Armenian version of it. How did he manage to fit two life spans into the last 10-15 years of his life? He really must be a superman!

For a sociologist-playing-historian, where then does Akcam get the academic authority to try to discredit the life-long-painstaking-works of a formidable array of genuine historians, researchers, and/or others such as Stanford Shaw, Bernard Lewis, Justin McCarthy, Heath Lowry, Norman Stone, Andrew Mango, Halil Inalcik, Yusuf Halacoglu, Kemal Cicek, Sina Aksin, Esat Uras, Kamuran Gurun, Turkkaya Ataov, Erich Feigl, Bilal Simsir, Sam Weems, Sadi Kocas, Yusuf Ziya Bildirici, Erdal Ilter, Azmi Suslu, Mecbure Eroglu, Hamit Pehlivanli, Kemal Ermetin, John Dewey, Hocaoglu, M., Meray, S. L., Turkozu, H. K., Salahi Sonyel, Robert John, Lamsa, George M. (a Christian missionary), Langer, William L., Leonard Ramsden Hartill (a researcher-writer), Niles, Emory and Sutherland, Arthur ( two U.S. Army officers), Adm. Bristol (an American soldier-diplomat), Hovhannes Katchaznouni (the first PM of Armenia), Arto Derounian (as John Roy Carlson), K. Sdepan Papazian, Boghos Nubar (the confessing Armenian leader), Migirdic Agop, Gwynne Dyer (researcher-journalist), Jean-Paul Roux, Georges de Maleville, Gilles Veinstein, Mayewski (Russian diplomat), Basar, H. K., Perincek, Twerdokhleroff (Russian officer), H.J. Pravitz (Swedish officer), Shimon Peres (Israeli leader), and many others, simply too long to list here?

Where does Akcam, sociologist-playing-historian-on-Armenian-payroll, get the audacity, for lack of a better word, to belittle, dismiss, or ignore the massive body of meticulous data concerning the Turkish-Armenian conflict in 19th and 20th Centuries, represented by the magnificent men and women partially listed above?

OK, maybe Akcam could not have possibly critically read in 10-15 years all those sources listed as references in his many books, but isn’t it at least possible that he perhaps critically read the Armenian-written ones? Well, the answer is still no because even that would probably take about a lifetime. How can anyone pack a lifetime in 10-15 years?
If Akcam claims he is a fast reader and he has read the Armenian-written books in the last 10-15 years—which is humanly not possible unless Akcam has also invented 25-hour-days—could that be considered objective, scholarly, or fair? Reading only one side, that is? If one considers Akcam’s incredibly one-sided stand on the “alleged” Armenian genocide issue, this theory of Akcam’s super-fast book reading and writing capabilities might actually make sense.)

Or could it be that Akcam perhaps just “skimmed” those books, not exactly critically read them? If this is the case, then this might explain Akcam’s (and Dadrian’s) many errors, omission, misinterpretations, and outright distortion.

We know Akcam’s English is poor by college standards and his Ottoman-Turkish is insufficient to properly interpret the many nuances contained in the Ottoman archives. But if his German is like his English or his Ottoman-Turkish, then I would not bet on the accuracy of Akcam’s research, would you? Be honest, now, would you? All this boils down to this: what sources does Akcam really read and how much does he understand when he reads them?
Judging by his blind prejudice against scholarly Turkish objections to official Armenian propaganda claiming genocide, I have serious doubts about his capability to conduct proper research in Ottoman or even English archives. This is what I think but I also respect the opinions of those who may disagree with me on this if they can substantiate their belief with non-partisan, verifiable facts.

Which brings us to Dadrian’s Zoryan Institute, a notoriously anti-Turkish propaganda house. Isn’t possible that Dadrian, Akcam’s mentor by Akcam’s own admission, may have told him way back when not to worry about doing much research as it is mostly done for him? And that they could publish all that “research” under Akcam’s name? and all Akcam has to do is “know enough to be dangerous”, as the saying goes? This would not exactly be illegal, I agree, just distasteful. The similarities between Dadrian’s and Akcams’s works fuel this suspicion of mine. But, then again, what do I know? My is just an opinion, a guess, a hunch. ..

How can Akcam, sociologist-on-Armenian-payroll-playing-historian, possibly have time in his busy schedule of dog-and-pony shows to do critical reading, writing, researching, fact-checking, editing, debating, lecturing, teaching and more? Does he have a large staff? (A UM research assistant with a large staff? Not very likely.)

And this brings us the next point: Akcam is not even employed by the University of Minnesota as an associate professor, as he seems to claim—please see the photo below where Akcam deliberately misrepresents himself to the unsuspecting audience as an UM associate professor. This photo is precious, in my view, as it shows Akcam’s face and his claim to UM associate professorship in the same frame, closing the window of deniability to him permanently. This photo was taken by one who attended his “scholarly” lecture, weeks after the UM legal counsel Benrud’s letter where it is clearly stated that Akcam is employed as a research associate, not associate professor. Having a Ph.D. does not elevate one automatically associate professorship and Akcam surely must know that. Why does he, then, clearly continue to misrepresent himself?

If this is not “A Shameful Act”, I don’t know what is!