On memory, identity, and genocide

Abstract

The Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide has had an immeasurable impact on Turkish society, as entire generations grew up with the denial as the official story. But oral history research with elderly Turks and Kurds in Eastern Turkey demonstrates that they hold vivid (post-)memories of the genocide. Based on interviews conducted with Turkish and Kurdish (grand-)children of eye witnesses, this article examines some of the problems surrounding the memory of the Armenian genocide and argues that there is a clash, not only between Turkish political memory and Armenian cultural memory, but also between Turkish political memory (the official state narrative) and Turkish/Kurdish social memory. In a nutshell: the Turkish government is denying a genocide that its own population remembers.