Turkish historian performs publicity stunt in Armenian Genocide issue

PanARMENIAN.Net - Yusuf Halacoglu, chairman of Turkey's state-funded Turkish Historical Society, said that he had offered Armenians $20 million to open the ARF archives in Boston which he says include "very important documents" regarding the Armenian Genocide, The California Courier reports with a reference to Hurriyet Turkish daily (May 20, 2008 edition: "Turkey offers $20 million aid to open Armenian archives.")



Halacoglu said that he made this financial offer after Armenians allegedly told him that they do not have the necessary funds to organize these archives. He claimed that "Armenians do not want to have the archives opened because such efforts will start a real debate over the genocide claims." Halacoglu claims that he had conveyed his offer of $20 million to "two Armenian historians, Ara Sarafian and Hilmar Kaiser," and had not received an answer.



"Betraying the depth of his ignorance, Halacoglu cannot even tell that Hilmar Kaiser is a German and not an Armenian!" writes Harout Sassunian, The California Courier editor.



Tatul Sonentz-Papazian, who managed the ARF archives in Boston until 2000, saying that, contrary to Halacoglu's claims, the cataloguing of the ARF documents through 1925 were completed in 1995. Mr. Sonentz-Papazian told that Hilmar Kaiser, whom he had seen as recently as a month ago, did not convey such an offer from Halacoglu. Ara Sarafian also contradicted Halacoglu's claims by telling that he had not been asked to convey such an offer to the ARF.



"This is obviously a publicity stunt," Sarafian was quoted as saying. "Halacoglu thrives on such publicity."