A Shameful Act The Arnenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Resposibility

"A Shameful Act is the definitive account of the organized destruction of the Ottoman Armenians, written by a brave Turkish scholar who has devoted his life to chronicling the events. No future discussion of the history will be able to ignore this brilliant book." Orhan Pamuk 'Some important Turkish scholarship had attempted an honest admission of the Armenian Genocide.. the principal author in this respect is Akcam.' Christopher Hitchens, Atlantic Monthly 'History owes Akcam a debt of honour for this meticulous and courageous expose of one of the greatest unacknowledged war crimes of the 20th Century. He leaves the reader in no doubt that the Armenian massacres of 1915 were state-sponsored genocide.' Saul David 'His work is breaking new ground' New York Times"
In 1915, the Turkish government systematically organised the wholesale slaughter of a complete race, the Armenians. Under the cover of World War 1, through the secret organisation of unofficial gangs of Kurds, released prisoners, German officers and Turks who had lost their lands in the war against the Balkans, over 1 million Armenians were murdered, starved, raped and left to die. Following the War, as the Nationalist movement began to rise up from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, the allies tried to persecute the perpetrators of the genocide, in a series of trials where the term 'crimes against humanity' was first used, Turkey was allowed to hide its recent history. It has remained hidden ever since. As the nation attempts to enter the European Union, the question of 1915 has become ever more important with the arrest of writers such as Orhan Pamuk, and the introduction of Turkey into the EU.