The Armenian translation of Turkish historian Taner Akcam’s book “Forced Islamization of Armenians: Silence, Denial and Assimilation” was presented at the Research Center on Western Armenian Studies in Yerevan in the presence of the author.
The book has been translated into Armenian by expert of Turkish studies Meline Anumyan, who also works as editor for Turkish programs of Public Radio of Armenia.
According to Meline Anumyan, the book comes to refute the false theses about the Islamization of Armenians.
“Some Turkish historians have manipulated the issue and tried to push forward the version that the existence of this many Islamized Armenians in Turkey proves that no genocide has been committed against Armenians,” she said.
Meanwhile, the work by Taner Akcam comes to prove that Islamized Armenians are also a result of the genocide.
The work consists of three parts. In the first part the author speaks about the impossibility of an unbiased study of the Armenian Genocide issue in Turkey, about the difficulties and persecutions he has passed through.
The second part presents the story of discriminatory and biased discussions on the Turkish edition of Armenian Officer Sarkis Torossian’s Memoires, which raised a second wave of criticism against Taner Akcam, who tracked down Torossian’s family in America.
In the third part the author presents the policy of forces Islamization and assimilation of Armenians between 1915 and 1918. Taner Akcam describes this as a structural element of the Armenian Genocide.
The book published under the sponsorship of the Jerair Nishanian Foundation is dedicated to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide.
