Diaspora Memory Conflicts: Struggles over Genocide Commemoration, Recognition and Denial

Abstract

This contribution analyses conflicts around genocide memory in the diaspora. It shows how Assyrian/Syriac initiatives to create memorials to the 1915 genocide has triggered reactions by Turkish diaspora groups and the Turkish government. The Rwandan government, in contrast, has mobilized its diaspora to fight denial of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, while other diaspora activists draw attention to—and create commemorative practices around—other, silenced, mass-atrocities. The text discusses the opportunities for victimhood recognition and memorialization offered in the diaspora, and how genocide memory conflicts intertwine with foreign policy matters and national and local politics in the country of settlement.