The Centennial of the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory and Political Debate

The Centennial of the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory and Political Debate (EL)

Siogka, Panagiota (EL)

Michailidis, Iakovos (EL)

Kordosis, Stefanos (EL)

masterThesis

2022-09-05

2022-10-20T11:15:52Z

2022-10-20

The dissertation seeks to address fourth sets of issues: The Armenian issue in the period 1878-1915, The Armenian Genocide narrative, the post-war era, notably the military trials and the attribution of responsibilities, and the Turkish denialism that began in modern Turkey of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and continues until today in Erdoğan’s regime. It also traces the annual commemoration policies by the Armenian diaspora from every edge of the world in order to build and define the next centennial of the community as a message of strength, perseverance, and hope for future generations. Finally, it examines the role of art in commemoration policies and Turkey’s attitude towards the projection and exposure of the events of the past through art. The paper tries to relate the current denialism with the Armenian-Turkish debate. It poses therefore the followed questions how and why do the Armenian and Turkish debates have different outcomes? What are the implications of these differences? It looks at how the Armenian diaspora and the Turkish state have used the unresolved conflict between competing Turkish narratives of denial and Armenian narratives affirming the genocide's reality to influence political actors in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East to support their arguments for and against the genocide's reality. This thesis provides a contribution to knowledge by demonstrating that genocide recognition is a political issue involving more than the perpetrators and victims. Recognition of genocide encapsulates other states and communities, just as genocide involves more than these two players. When this comes to the awareness of their obligations, bystander governments must consider what they do when genocide is perpetrated. Essentially, the dissertation examines genocide from an international perspective, which is why it mentions the present government's attitude on the problem, as well as the most recent pronouncement by US President John Baiden, who openly recognized genocide as a crime against humanity. Therefore, the particular Master's thesis aims at providing a thorough explanation and understanding of Turkish-Armenian bilateral relations from the past to today. It focuses on analyzing the importance of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide in decision-making steps to improvement and to justice. It is also a step to humanization, a demand of alleviation and vindication for all the Armenian diaspora. (EL)

Human rights (EL)

Memory (EL)

Armenian diaspora (EL)

Armenian-Turkish debate (EL)

Armenian Genocide (EL)

English

School of Humanities, MA in Black Sea & Eastern Mediterranean Studies

IHU (EL)

Default License

International Hellenic University

Institutional Repository of the International Hellenic University

University Center of International Programmes of Studies (UCIPS)

Master Theses