Türkkaya Ataöv


Türkkaya Ataöv is a Turkish academic and columnist. He is a denialist of the Armenian Genocide.

Life and career

Ataöv was born in Gelibolu, Turkey in 1932. He attended Robert College where he earned a B.A. in Humanities. He then attended Syracuse University and New York University where he earned two master's degrees. In 1959, he received a Ph.D in Political Science from Syracuse.
Ataöv specializes in international relations. He was a faculty member at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences for more than 40 years. In 1983, he began teaching classes at the university regarding the Armenian Question. Ataöv taught that the historical record of the Armenian Genocide was based on false or misinterpreted documents. He has written 78 books on the Armenian Genocide. In these books, he claims that the genocide did not occur, citing sources and statistics obtained from the Ottoman Archives. In 2009, Ataöv had a speaking engagement at McGill University which was met by protests from Armenian students.
As a columnist, he has written for the Turkish newspapers Cumhuriyet and Türksolu. Ataöv has also published poems, writings and essays in various art magazines. His writings have been translated into 20 languages, including French and English.

Selected works