Taner Akçam

Taner Akçam
Akçam in Toronto, 2013
Born	October 23, 1953 (1953-10-23) (age 63) Ölçek, Ardahan Province, Turkey
Nationality	German
Alma mater	Middle East Technical University
Occupation	historian
Known for	discussion of Armenian Genocide, 1977 imprisonment

Altuğ Taner Akçam (born in Ardahan, Turkey, October 23, 1953) is a Turkish-German historian and sociologist. He is one of the first Turkish academics to acknowledge and openly discuss the Armenian Genocide, and is recognized as a "leading international authority" on the subject.

Akçam argues for an attempt to reconcile the differing Armenian and Turkish narratives of the genocide, and to move away from the behaviour which uses those narratives to support national stereotypes. "We have to re-think the problem and place both societies in the centre of our analysis. This change of paradigm should focus on creating a new cultural space that includes both societies, a space in which both sides have the chance to learn from each other."

Akçam was born in Ölçek village near Ardahan, Turkey to Dursun and Perihan Akçam. He has stated that he was raised in "a very secular family," with his father being an atheist. He studied economics at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, and graduated in 1976. In 1974, Akçam was arrested for participating in student protests against the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. In 1975 he was arrested for distributing leaflets and placing posters around the city. (Akçam notes that "one had to obtain permission from what is now called the Security General Directorate’s Special Inspection Branch Directorate for the Associations, and that even with a special permit in hand, one could be arbitrarily arrested and apprehended at police headquarters for 3–5 days.") On March 9, 1976, soon after graduating from university, while a graduate student at the same department, he was arrested for his involvement in producing a student journal that focused on the treatment of Turkey’s Kurdish minority.Devrimci Gençlik ("Revolutionary Youth"), was the journal of a radical leftist organization, called Devrimci Yol ("Revolutionary Path"). Akçam explained that he accepted the editorship position, aged 22, since none of his peers stepped up to the plate, knowing that it could land him in jail. His fears materialized when he received a nine-year sentence in early 1977, which resulted in Amnesty International adopting him in 1976 as a prisoner of conscience. He served for a year before escaping from Ankara Central Prison on March 12, 1977, using the leg of an iron stove to dig a hole. He received political asylum from Germany in 1978, where he obtained citizenship and resided until obtaining his doctorate degree in 1995.