The Southern Poverty Law Center has apologized for insulting historian Guenter Lewy after he expressed an opinion about the events in 1915 when the Ottoman Empire, the precursor to modern Turkey, perpetrated what Armenia insists was a genocide against its people, the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper has reported.
In a book published in 2005 about the 1915 events, Lewy, an 87-year-old professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, said Armenia's claim of genocide was baseless and false.
The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center subsequently called Lewy a "Turkish spy."
Lewy filed a libel suit against the organization and demanded compensation of $8 million.
The organization officially apologized and retracted the charges against Lewy.
Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that the Ottoman Empire carried out a genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. About twenty countries have recognized the claim, although the issue remains under dispute.