Professor Taner Akçam has received an inaugural Literary Trophy from Nouvelles d’Arménie (News of Armenia). In its first-ever awards, the magazine recognized the best books of the year in four areas: history, essay, novel, and graphic novel. Akçam’s 2018 work, “Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide,” which provides direct evidence of the Ottoman Empire’s central role in the Armenian Genocide of 1915, was one of five books honored in the history category.

“I would like to thank them for their kindness to give me this prize,” said Akçam, who is the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. “This kind of award is very valuable and very meaningful. It inspires and encourages us. It is my biggest hope that such steps contribute to Armenian-Turkish friendship.”

Akçam has received multiple awards for his work, including Lifetime Achievement Award from the Knights and Daughters of Vartan in recognition of his steadfast devotion to uncovering the truth behind the Armenian Genocide; the Freedom Award from the Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region (ANCA-ER); the Medal of Courage by the Confederation of Armenian Organizations; the Hrant Dink Spirit of Justice Medal; and the Heroes of Justice and Truth award from the National Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, among others.

Akçam is one of the first Turkish intellectuals to acknowledge and openly discuss the Armenian Genocide. In recent years, The New York Times called him “The Sherlock Holmes of the Armenian Genocide.” “Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide,” includes a document — a “smoking gun” — that points to the Ottoman government’s central role in planning the elimination of its Armenian population.

“Killing Orders” has been translated into ten languages: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Armenian.