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Taner Akcam to Speak at NAASR on February 3

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  • Taner Akcam to Speak at NAASR on February 3

    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 His unpublished autobiography and work on the history of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.

    # # # # #

    January 17, 2011
    Belmont, MA




    From: A. Papazian
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