{{Short description|2016 book by Taner Akcam}} {{Infobox book | image = Naim Efendi'nin Hatıratı ve Talat Paşa Telgrafları.jpg | author = Taner Akcam | pub_date = 2016 | title_orig = Naim Efendi'nin Hatıratı ve Talat Paşa Telgrafları: Krikor Gergeryan Arşivi | language = Turkish | genre = Non-fiction | publisher = İletişim Yayıncılık | caption = First edition | name = Killing Orders: Talat Pasha's Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide }} {{italic title}} '''''Killing Orders: Talat Pasha's Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide''''' ({{langx|tr|'''Naim Efendi'nin Hatıratı ve Talat Paşa Telgrafları: Krikor Gergeryan Arşivi'''<!--Identified as the same book in http://armradio.am/tur/11461-->}} "Memoir of Naim Efendi and Talat Pasha Telegrams: Krikor Gergeryan Archive") is a 2016 book from Taner Akcam about the veracity of the primary source evidence of the Armenian genocide, particularly telegrams sent by Talaat Pasha. He addresses dismissal of the authenticity of evidence as a form of Armenian genocide denial. The original Turkish version was published in Istanbul by İletişim Yayınları<!--Publisher info from: http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/22334/bahaettin-sakirin-ermenilerin-imhasina-dair-mektuplari -->. The English version, published by Palgrave Macmillan, came in 2018.
Akcam addresses claims made in a 1983 Turkish Historical Society book that Naim Effendi was not a real person; he obtained copies of the individual's memoirs to prove his existence.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://armenianweekly.com/2018/03/23/akcam-talat-pashas-telegrams-columbia/|title=Akcam to Discuss 'Talat Pasha's Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide' at Columbia on March 28|newspaper=Armenian Weekly|date=2018-03-23}}</ref>
Mark Mazower of ''The New York Review of Books'' wrote that Akcam's book is "less a conventional history than a kind of forensic exercise designed to lay to rest once and for all any dispute regarding the authenticity of the Naim-Andonian documents, and to demonstrate their importance in helping to understand the state structures that allowed the genocide to take place."<ref name=Mazower>{{cite magazine|author=Mazower, Mark|authorlink=Mark Mazower|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/04/04/talat-pasha-archive-atrocities-armenia/|title=An Archive of Atrocities|magazine=The New York Review of Books|date=2019-04-04}}</ref> Mazower stated that herefore it is "not an easy read".<ref name=Mazower/>
Alpogan stated that the book was not successful to prove the verification of the source.<ref>Alpogan, Y. (2018).[https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ras/issue/47553/600614 “Review Essay: Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide.”] Review of Armenian Studies, Issue 37 .</ref>
==Content== Much of the content is on following claims and counterclaims in accusations of authenticity or lack thereof from recognition and denialist camps. Mazower stated "The reader feels rather like someone who has stumbled into a fiercely argued courtroom drama."<ref name=Mazower/>
Akçam responded to Şinasi Orel and Süreyya Yuca's statements that ''The Memoirs of Naim Bey'' was fabricated and that Naim didn't exist. Orel and Yuca stated that the Ottomans used 4 and 5 digit encryption codes rather than the 2 and 3 ones used by the documents: Akçam stated that the memoirs are in fact real. He also stated that as the Turkish Armed Forces ATASE archive revealed a document with the signature of Naim, there was proof that Naim was real, and that the Ottoman archives in fact had 2 and 3 digit archival codes.<ref>{{cite web|author=Estukyan, Vartan|url=http://www.agos.com.tr/en/article/16694/are-talat-pasha-telegrams-real|title=Are "Talat Pasha Telegrams" real?|publisher=Agos|date=2016-10-07|accessdate=2019-06-23}} - Turkish version: "[http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/16694/talat-pasa-telgraflari-gercek-mi Talat Paşa telgrafları gerçek mi?]" - An abridged version of this interview, translated by a different person, is at: “[http://armenianweekly.com/2016/10/11/akcam-memoirs-telegrams/ Akçam: The Authenticity of the Naim Efendi Memoirs and Talat Pasha Telegrams]” in: ''The Armenian Weekly'', October 11, 2016.</ref>
Akcam came upon photographs of the original telegram in New York, where they were in the possession of Armenian monk Krikor Guerguerian.<ref>{{cite news |last=Mandell |first=Ariane |title=Lost Evidence of Armenian Genocide Discovered in Jerusalem Archive |url=https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Lost-evidence-of-Armenian-Genocide-discovered-in-Jerusalem-archive-488694 |work=The Jerusalem Post |location=Israel |date=23 April 2017 |access-date=15 November 2022|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170519032849/http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Lost-evidence-of-Armenian-Genocide-discovered-in-Jerusalem-archive-488694|archive-date=19 May 2017}}</ref> This can be considered as the "smoking gun" evidence of the Armenian genocide, in which there is talk of deportation "without giving neither food, nor water", no mercy for "agony cries and despair", "deport the orphans, not build orphanages". Also for this reason Eric D. Weitz, a history professor at the City College of New York and an expert on the Armenian genocide, called Mr. Akcam "the Sherlock Holmes of Armenian genocide."<ref>{{cite news |last=Arango |first=Tim |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/world/europe/armenian-genocide-turkey.html|title='Sherlock Holmes of Armenian Genocide' Uncovers Lost Evidence |work=The New York Times |url-access=subscription|date=22 April 2017|access-date=15 November 2022 }}</ref>
==See also== * ''Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide''<!--Also reviewed in "Archive of Atrocities"-->
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite journal|author=Muti, Öndercan (Berlin)|title=Naim Efendi'nin Hatıratı ve Talat Paşa Telgrafları. Krikor Gergeryan Arşivi|journal={{ill|Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte|de}}|date=2018-05-04|volume=70|issue=2|pages = 198–200|doi=10.1163/15700739-07002011|language=en}} - Review of the original Turkish version, in English * {{cite journal|author=Schwanitz, Wolfgang G.|url=https://www.meforum.org/57917/killing-orders|title=Killing Orders Talat Pasha's Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide|journal=Middle East Quarterly|date=Spring 2019|publisher=Middle East Forum}}
==External links== * ''[https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319697864 Killing Orders]'' - Palgrave Macmillan * ''[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-69787-1_1 Killing Orders]'' - At SpringerLink <!--DOI: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69787-1_1 --> * {{cite news|author=Kucera, Joshua|url=https://eurasianet.org/perspectives-new-book-purports-to-offer-smoking-gun-proving-armenian-genocide|title=Perspectives <nowiki>|</nowiki> New Book Purports to Offer "Smoking Gun" Proving Armenian Genocide|work=Eurasianet|date=2018-03-19}} * {{cite web|author=Bayzdlo, Angela|url=https://clarknow.clarku.edu/2018/01/17/historian-taner-akcam-uncovers-smoking-gun-of-armenian-genocide/|title=Historian Taner Akçam uncovers 'smoking gun' of Armenian Genocide|publisher=Clark University<!--Note this is Akcam's employer-->|date=2018-01-17}} - Alternate link: {{cite web|url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168025|title=Historian Taner Akçam's new book includes "smoking gun" of Armenian Genocide|publisher=Clark University<!--Note this is Akcam's employer-->, posted at the History News Network, George Washington University|date=2018-01-17}} * https://commons.trincoll.edu/historyblog/2018/03/19/killing-order-talaat-pashas-telegrams-and-the-armenian-genocide-a-lecture-by-professor-taner-akcam/ ; Videos: * {{cite web|author=Hovsepian, Jirar|url=https://archive.org/details/snafuinfinitykilling-orders_040318|title=Killing Orders: Talat Pasha's Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide|date=2018-04-03}} at Archive.org * {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX0_MLV2FRQ|title=Talat Pasha's Killing Orders and Denial of Armenian Genocide - Taner Akçam|publisher=Rowan University College of Humanities and Social Science (CHSS)|date=2019-03-20}} * {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRMdNNirDrI|title=Dr. Taner Akçam - Killing Orders: Talat Pasha's Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide|publisher=American University of Armenia|date=2018-06-17}} * {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MiwNOwsznk|title=Taner Akcam <nowiki>|</nowiki> Killing Orders: Talat Pasha's Telegrams|publisher=National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)|date=2018-05-16}}
{{Works about the Armenian Genocide}}
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Category:2016 non-fiction books Category:21st-century history books Category:History books about the Armenian genocide