Taner Akcam alarmed by neglected grave of celebrated Armenian scholar

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish-German historian and genocide scholar Taner Akcam has published images from the grave of the celebrated Armenian-American sociologist and historian Vahakn N. Dadrian, which has been left unattended and is now overgrown with weeds and bushes.

"I share some images from my dear Professor Vahakn N. Dadrianwith great shock and sadness," Akcam wrote on social media on Monday, August 15.

"After persistent and patient research, the director of the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, Maggie Goschin, found out that Dadrian's grave, a cemetery in Yerevan, where he was interred in 2019, had been left unattended and was overgrown with weeds-bushes. Worse still, there was no marker on the grave. Only after consultation with the cemetery administration, the grave site could be located.

Akcam believes Dadrian doesn't deserve such attitude.

"While many foreign dignitaries are honored on the road to Yerevan's Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, it is unacceptable and an immense shame that the grave of the founder of modern Armenian Genocide Research lies in an unkempt and forgotten in a cemetery without even a grave marker," the scholar said.

"I am unsure who was responsible for Dadrian's burial or who was in charge of building a grave for him. Whatever the reasons might be, I'm sure everybody will agree with me that this is a great shame and unacceptable. I hope those responsible will take immediate action and give Dadrian the grave he deserves. Instead of blaming each other, we should get together and do whatever is necessary."

Dadrian was a professor of sociology, historian, and an expert on the Armenian genocide. He was one of the early scholars of the academic study of genocide and recognized as one of the key thinkers on the Holocaust and genocide.