Biography

Professor of History at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

Has dual Turkish and German citizenship.

In the "Personal Quotes" section, Akçam provided what he called his evidence for an "Armenian genocide." As "From Smoking Gun to Muddied Waters: The Alleged Telegraph of Bahaeddin Sakir," by Sean Patrick Smyth (05.06.2017) has exposed, Akçam's claim to have discovered the document was false; it was in existence since the 1980s, and later presented by Akçam's mentor, the genocide activist Vahakn Dadrian, in 1994. The telegraph was dated not July 4, 1915, but April 21, 1915, before the alleged "genocide" began. There are other discrepancies and mistranslations, especially with words such as "liquidated." Since Armenians mostly from the war zone were being temporarily relocated given their massive rebellion and disloyalty during a life-and-death war, and what those with agendas choose to keep hidden, the telegraph (assuming it exists; the way Akçam got hold of it, as explained in the New York Times' 2017 article the quote was from, is very suspicious) could be interpreted as checking on whether Armenians were being mistreated by "troublesome individuals." The Ottoman government took 1,673 Turks and others to court during 1915-16 for harming Armenians, punishing ten percent of decided cases with execution.

In the "Personal Quotes" section, Akçam was quoted as stating, "I'm a historian." Aside from the fact that a historian is duty-bound to choose no side except for the truth, his degree was not in history, but in sociology - which his mentor (activist Vahakn Dadrian) took pains to see through completion, with the help of a "genocide scholar" in Germany.

[on new evidence for the Armenian Genocide] It is a telegram sent July 4, 1915. And the telegram says the following - are the Armenians who were deported from there being liquidated? Are the troublesome individuals whom you have reported as having been exiled and expelled been eliminated or merely sent off and deported? Please report honestly. So this is the telegram. And we knew the existence of such a telegram. It was quoted in several indictments and verdicts during the military tribunals in Istanbul. And I discovered the original with an Ottoman letterhead. This is the discovery. (...) I think the Turkish government must try or develop some new strategies to deny the Armenian Genocide. They cannot deny as they have been denying over the years. It is over now. There is no way to escape. They have to face this reality. This is a telegram with an Ottoman letterhead and with the Ottoman coding system. [April 24, 2017]

[on being a Turkish historian of the Armenian Genocide] I'm a historian. It is my job to educate a new generation on violence in the past so that this should not happen again in the future. The second important reason is my firm belief that democracy can only be established in Turkey if Turkey faces its own history. [April 24, 2017]