Theoretically he could still be right but there is no reason to believe he is. He doesn’t speak any local languages, has never done any fieldwork in the region, and his methodology/analysis is extremely unscientific and poor. I would encourage you to read his articles and see for yourself-it’s based on extremely shoddy and weak correlations w/ no serious causal connection whatsoever. I was honestly shocked at how poor the “scholarship” was considering how many people take it seriously.

There’s obviously extensive evidence of persecution and forced cultural assimilation, but that is not genocide. These things matter.