''A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility'' () is a 1999 book by

Taner Akçam Altuğ Taner Akçam (born 1953) is a Turkish-German historian and sociologist. During the 1990s, he was the first Turkish scholar to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, and has written several books on the genocide, such as '' A Shameful Act'' ...

about

Armenian genocide denial Denial of the Armenian genocide is the negationist claim that the Ottoman Empire and its ruling party, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), did not commit genocide against its Armenian citizens during World War I—a crime docume ...

, originally published in Turkish. Paul Bessemer translated content from the original Turkish for the 2006 English translation, and Zoryan Institute members Julie Gilmour and George Shirinian revised the raw translation. Akçam states in the book that the

Committee of Union and Progress The Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP, also translated as the Society of Union and Progress; , French language, French: ''Union et Progrès'') was a revolutionary group, secret society, and political party, active between 1889 and 1926 ...

(CUP) orchestrated the genocide out of fear of losing additional territory during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Gary J. Bass wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' that the "dense, measured, and footnote-heavy book poses a stern challenge to modern Turkish polemicists".

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

stated that the author "is unsparing in his evidence, including proof that Turkish officials who refused to obey murderous orders were themselves murdered." - Posted online on May 20, 2010. It received the 2007 Minnesota Book Award for General Nonfiction.

concluded that the book is "of profound importance to history—and certain to stir up nests of hornets." The book's title refers to a statement by

Mustafa Kemal Mustafa () is one of the names of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in the Muslim world. Given name Moustafa * Moustafa A ...

in which he called the deportation of Armenians a "shameful act". Historian Fatma Ulgen writes that the book "remains strangely silent about Kemal's role in the consolidation of Turkish denial within official Turkish history" and that Akçam's suggestion that Kemal's views of the genocide could serve to foster recognition "rests on a very selective and ahistorical reading of Kemal's texts."

Editions

* Akçam, Taner. ''İnsan Hakları ve Ermeni Sorunu, İttihat ve Terakki'den Kurtuluş Savaşı'na'' ("Human Rights and the Armenian Question, from the ommittee ofUnion and Progress to Liberation War"),

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

: İmge Kitabevi, 1999.

Editions

References

Further reading