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Thomas Goltz

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Thomas Goltz
Born(1954-10-11)October 11, 1954
Japan
DiedJuly 29, 2023(2023-07-29) (aged 68)
Alma materNew York University
OccupationsJournalist and author
Known forCoverage of the Wars in the Caucasus

Thomas Goltz (October 11, 1954 – July 29, 2023) was an American author and journalist best known for his accounts of the Wars in the Caucasus during the 1990s.[1] He spent 15 years in and around Turkey and the Caucasus.[2]

Career

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He directed and co-produced a documentary for Global Vision's Rights and Wrongs program[3] which was a finalist in the Rory Peck Award for excellence in television journalism in 1996.[4][2][5]

Goltz has written news for most leading U.S. publications, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. In-depth articles by Goltz have appeared in Foreign Policy magazine, The National Interest, The Washington Quarterly and other broad-based magazines. In electronic media, he has worked on or produced video documentaries on a variety of topics for ABC/Nightline, BBC/Correspondent and CBS/60 Minutes.[6]

He became known mainly as a crisis correspondent due to his coverage of the Wars in the Caucasus; in particular, he covered the First Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan and separatist conflicts in Abkhazia and in Chechnya.[2]

He spent time in Samashki, Chechnya before the massacre happened there. He made video reports about the massacre immediately afterwards. Goltz made a film out of them which was in mainstream in the United States, the United Kingdom, and even in Russia.[7]

On August 22, 2000, Goltz carried the symbolic "first barrel of oil" from Baku, Azerbaijan with IMZ sidecar motorcycle, to Ceyhan, Turkey with other 25 riders. They used to future Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline route at the time. The aim was to draw attention to a megaproject symbolizing both Azerbaijan's and Georgia's economic independence.[8][9]

He lectured at most leading US universities including Columbia, Georgetown, Berkeley, Northwestern, Princeton, etc. and foreign policy-related institutes in Azerbaijan, Canada, Georgia, the United Kingdom and the United States.[6] Other than that he was also professor in Montana State University.[10] In 2020, he was awarded an honorary PhD by the ADA University.[11]

Personal life

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Thomas Goltz was born in Japan and raised in North Dakota. He graduated from New York University with an MA in Middle East studies.[2] He married Hicran Oge in 1984 in Istanbul, Turkey.[12] Goltz spoke English, German, Turkish, and Azerbaijani fluently. He knew some Arabic, Russian and Japanese too.[2][13] He died on July 29, 2023, at the age of 68 after a long illness.[14][15][12] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent a condolences message to his family and described Goltz as "great friend of Azerbaijan".[16]

Controversy

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The Armenian National Committee of Canada accused Goltz of racism in March 2009 for remarks made at a lecture allegedly sponsored by Assembly of Azerbaijani-Canadian Organizations. According to the Armenian National Committee, Goltz characterized the Armenian inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh as "garlic-growing Armenians", and selectively mentioned instances of ethnic cleansing by Armenians against Azerbaijanis while omitting mention of cases of ethnic cleansing of Armenians by Azerbaijanis.[17][18][unreliable fringe source?]

Books

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  • Requiem for a would-be republic (1994)[19][20]
  • Goltz, Thomas (1998). Azerbaijan Diary: A ROGUE REPORTER'S ADVENTURES IN AN OIL-RICH, WAR-TORN POST-SOVIET REPUBLIC. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 076560244X.[21]
  • Oil Odyssey (2000)[9][22][23][24]
  • Chechnya Diary: A War Correspondent's Story of Surviving the War in Chechnya (2003) ISBN 0312268742[25][26]
  • Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus (2006) ISBN 0765617102[27]
  • Assassinating Shakespeare: Confessions of a Bard in the Bush (2006) ISBN 0863567185[12]
  • Türkiye Diary ('The Bridge'): Forty Years Of Intimate Association With A Wayward US Eurasian Ally (2020)[28][29]
  • Zakhrafa : Memories of a disappearing Middle East (2021)[30][31]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Blair, Betty (2006). "Thomas Goltz: The Caucasus Trilogy: Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Georgia". Azerbaijan International, AZER.com (14:2): 66–67.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Gausan, Robert. "Thomas Goltz - Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 2023-09-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  3. ↑ "Rights and Wrongs Series: Europe, Chechnya: Russia's Human Rights Nightmare | Alexander Street, part of Clarivate". search.alexanderstreet.com. Archived from the original on 2023-09-27. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  4. ↑ Goltz, Thomas (1996-12-29). "U.S. Quietly Abandons the Kurds of Northern Iraq". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2023-09-27. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  5. ↑ "News Award". The Rory Peck Trust. Archived from the original on 2023-06-08. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  6. 1 2 "Thomas Goltz: books, biography, latest update". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on 2023-09-27. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  7. ↑ "BOOK REVIEW". Jamestown. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  8. ↑ "Oil Odyssey 2000". Azerbaijan International: 60–61. 2001.
  9. 1 2 "Oil Odyssey". Amazon. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  10. ↑ "Thomas Goltz | Pulitzer Center". Pulitzer Center. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  11. ↑ TheEditor (2021-06-15). "American author Goltz: Eccentric regional icon still at it". The Tribune. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  12. 1 2 3 "Thomas Caufield Goltz Obituary 2023". Franzen-Davis Funeral Home, Crematory and Monument Company. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  13. ↑ Blair, Betty (2006). "Thomas Goltz: The Caucasus Trilogy: Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Georgia". Azerbaijan International (14:2): 66–67.
  14. ↑ American writer Thomas Goltz who wrote about Khojaly tragedy passed away
  15. ↑ Pope, Hugh (2023-08-01). "RIP Thomas Goltz, the journalist who knew no limits". Hugh Pope. Archived from the original on 2023-09-27. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  16. ↑ "To the family of Thomas Goltz". President.az. 29 July 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  17. ↑ "ANCC: American professor made racist and derogatory remarks about Armenians". PanARMENIAN.Net. 10 March 2009. Archived from the original on 4 January 2024.
  18. ↑ "'Let the garlic-growing Armenians beg to join you [Azerbaijan]'". Armenian Weekly. 10 March 2009. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  19. ↑ Requiem for a would-be republic: The rise and demise of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan : a personal account of the years 1991-1993. Istanbul: The Isis Press. 1994-01-01. ISBN 978-975-428-068-5.
  20. ↑ Goltz, Thomas Caufield (1994). Requiem for a would-be republic : the rise and demise of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan; a personal account of the years 1991 - 1993 (1. publ. ed.). ISBN 978-975-428-068-5.
  21. ↑ "Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-rich, War-torn, Post-Soviet Republic". Amazon. Retrieved 2023-09-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  22. ↑ Abdel-Hassan, Mohamed Aziz (2018-01-30). "Geopolitical dimensions to build the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Nabucco gas pipeline to Western Europe". International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Research. 6 (1). doi:10.14741/ijmcr.v6i01.10909. ISSN 2321-3124.
  23. ↑ "An Oil Odyssey". 2021-02-07. Archived from the original on 2023-03-26. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  24. ↑ "Oil Odyssey by Thomas Goltz, Judy Gunderson-Muncy". app.thestorygraph.com. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  25. ↑ CHECHNYA DIARY | Kirkus Reviews.
  26. ↑ Goltz, Thomas (10 October 2003). Chechnya Diary: A War Correspondent's Story of Surviving the War in Chechnya. Macmillan. ISBN 0312268742.
  27. ↑ "Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus". Amazon. Retrieved 2023-09-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  28. ↑ "Amazon.com: Türkiye Diary ('The Bridge'): Forty Years Of Intimate Association With A Wayward US Eurasian Ally eBook : Goltz, Thomas: Kindle Store". Amazon. Archived from the original on 2023-09-27.
  29. ↑ Chaffetz, David (2020-11-30). ""Türkiye Diary (The Bridge): Forty Years Of Intimate Association With A Wayward US Eurasian Ally" by Thomas Goltz". Archived from the original on 2022-11-25. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  30. ↑ Zakhrafa : Memories of a disappearing Middle East. New Silk Road LLC / Publishing. 2021-09-01.
  31. ↑ "Zakhrafa". 2021-08-29. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
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