By Taner Akcam

A landmark assessment of Turkish culpability in the Armenian Genocide, the first history of its kind

This book by renowned historian Taner Akcam tells the story of the Armenian Genocide through careful excavation of Ottoman and other first-hand sources. This is a scrupulous account of Ottoman culpability in the killing.

Drawing on all the significant evidence -- in Turkish military and court records, parliamentary minutes, letters, and eyewitness accounts -- Akcam follows the chain of events leading up to the killing and then reconstructs its systematic orchestration by coordinated departments of the Ottoman state.

He also probes the question of how Turkey succeeded in evading responsibility, pointing to the Great Powers' competing interests in the region and the international community's inadequate attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice.

A sociologist and historian, Akcam was born in the Ardahan province of Turkey in 1953. He was granted political asylum in Germany after receiving a 10-year prison sentence in Turkey for his involvement in producing a student journal, which resulted in his adoption in 1976 by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. He is the author of 10 scholarly works of history and sociology, as well as numerous articles. He currently teaches at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota.

483 pages, hard cover

ISBN# 0805079327