German archives on Armenian Genocide translated into Turkish

German archives on Armenian Genocide translated into Turkish

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ragip Zarakolu, a publisher in Istanbul and a renowned champion of human rights, has collaborated with the Zoryan Institute to lay one more building block on the foundation of a common body of knowledge for Turks and Armenians. Zarakolu, despite being in jail since October 2011 allegedly in connection with the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) trials, has not stopped his efforts to bring out the historical truth about the Armenian Genocide.

On January 12, 2012, Belge Yayınları, Zarakolu’s publishing house, released Alman Belgeleri Ermeni Soykımı 1915-16: Alman Dışişleri Bakanlığı Siaysi Arşiv Belgeleri, the Turkish edition of The Armenian Genocide 1915-16: Documents from the Political Archives of the German Foreign Office, compiled and edited by Wolfgang Gust and published originally in Germany.

The original book was the product of some ten years of devoted research, editing and translating overseen by Wolfgang and Sigrid Gust. It is an extensive selection of some 218 telegrams, letters and reports from German consular officials in the Ottoman Empire to the Foreign Office in Berlin describing the unfolding genocide of the Armenians.

This new book is part of the long-term project, “Creating a Common Body of Knowledge.” There is a need in Turkey at this time for authoritative information on its suppressed history. The Zoryan Institute seeks to help provide information to fill this need through systematic scholarly research, the publication of incontestable information on the Armenian Genocide in Turkish and other languages, and the distribution of it widely in Turkey and other countries. Other documentary and analytical publications commissioned by the Zoryan Institute as part of the “Common Body of Knowledge” include Hitler and the Armenian Genocide (Belge Publishers) and Judgment at Istanbul (Bilgi University Press).

The translation into Turkish and publication of the German documents was very challenging and took seven years. Dealing with the diplomatic German language and Sütterlin script of the World War I era was particularly difficult, and the text of the forthcoming English language edition was helpful in clarifying many passages.

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