Don't paint ethnic groups into an academic corner
I TAKE issue with the opening sentence of David Abel's article: "It's like appointing a non-Jewish German to teach Holocaust studies, but Clark University has already done that." Since when is academic research classified as belonging to the scrutiny of one ethnic group and not the other? If members of the media could resist the sensationalistic urge to jump on preconceived notions as to who is more prone to study a particular subject in history, maybe then they would not be so quick to presuppose that only Armenian historians study the origin, history, and examples of genocide.
Taner Akcam, who happened to undergo some very unfortunate circumstances related to his country of origin, is not the only Turkish historian who has studied or is studying genocide. In fact, Turkish and Armenian historians have been collaborating to study this politically charged subject for years. The US media may be asleep at the switch, but not the academic and intellectual community of Turkey. They've been doing their homework for a while, a testament to the fact that the Turkey that Akcam had to leave in the 1970s is no longer the Turkey of today.
GONCA SONMEZ-POOLE, Acton 