A Struggle for Genocide Recognition: How the Aramean, Assyrian, and Chaldean Diasporas Link Past and Present

Abstract

Abstract This article analyzes how Aramean, Assyrian, and Chaldean communities in Western Europe organize their struggle for Sayfo (genocide) recognition and how narratives of the past are enacted in their campaign. The year 2015 provided a unique opportunity to study such diasporic communities’ strategic uses of the past. Hundreds of centenary commemorations were organized all over the world. The authors have selected three that illustrate how the Sayfo recognition campaign was organized, and how its practitioners strategically use the past in their efforts.