Knowledge and Acknowledgement : The Politics of Memory of the Armenian Genocide

Abstract: How come that the Armenian genocide, a century old issue, is still a highly topical question, academic as well as political, in our days? My dissertation intends to follow the development of the Armenian question since WWI, with focus on the past half century, starting on the 50th commemoration day on April 24, 1965. The aim is to understand how the question has evolved during these years, identify the driving factors and the participating actors in the process of politics of memory.A century since it was committed during World War I, the Armenian genocide still determines and influences many political issues of our days, including the normalization of the relations between Turkey and Armenia, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding Nagorno Karabakh, the relations between Armenia and its diaspora, Turkish threats towards third states which consider recognizing the genocide, as well as a lively and constantly charged confrontation within the scholarly community, just to name the most prominent main aspects.All these aspects suggest that the Armenian genocide is much more than just history. This dissertation aims at analyzing the politics of memory, a continuously ongoing process in which many different actors participate in producing and consuming memories and history. By following the Armenian genocide for the past century, this research aims to illustrate how different factors such as memory, history, justice and reconciliation collaborate in an interlaced relation and keep the Armenian genocide a topical issue in our days.