^#smrgSAHAF Preposterous Paradoxes of Ambassador Morgenthau: A Factual Story About Politics, Propaganda and Distortions - 2013

Şükrü Server Aya has done I service to our understanding of history with his Inalvsls of Ambassador Morgenthau's reports on the Armenian Question In the Ottoman Empire. Morgenthau has long held I prominent place in what has become the popularly accepted history of the events of World War I. His descriptions of Armenian suffering feature prominently In accusations that the Ottomans committed genocide. The difficulty, as demonstrated by Aya, is that Morgenthau readily accepted fabricated evidence and himself falsified the record.

Aya's method is simple. He takes Morgenthau's statements and identifies the false, the prejudiced, and the impossible. He compares Morgenthau's written accounts with his diaries, showing that much of what Morgenthau allegedly heard from Ottoman officials on plans to exterminate Armenians was complete invention. He analyzes the prejudices and political calculations that led to Morgenthau's deception.

This book is not one of the polemics and baseless assertions that too often have characterized histories of the Turks and Armenians. It is a book of incredible detail that demands careful consideration. The effort of readers, however, will be repaid with a new understanding of history and of the creation of the mythology of the events of World War I. - Justin McCarthy, University of Louisvle

Justin McCarthy ls Professor of History and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville. Among his works on related subjects: Muslims and Minorities (1983), The Ottoman Turks (1997), The Ottoman Peoples and the end of the Empire (2001), The Armenian Rebellion at Van (2006) and The Turk In America (2010)