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DESPITE DENIAL, TURKS AND KURDS REMEMBER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, SAYS REPARATIONS SCHOLAR - VIDEO
http://newsroom.aua.am/2013/05/05/reparations-expert-to-explore-armenian-genocide-in-turkish-memory-and-identity/?utm_source=AUA%20Insider%20Newsletter&utm_campaig n=65927e428d-AUA_Insider_May_20135_7_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_ term=0_6c3c4333d4-65927e428d-60502357
MAY 5, 2013 in HUMANITIES, PUBLIC LECTURE, UNIVERSITY
YEREVAN-The Turkish Government is denying a genocide its own population
remembers, according to Dr. Ugur Umit Ungör, who spoke via simulcast
from the Netherlands on May 2, 2013 during the American University
of Armenia's (AUA) annual commemorative talk on the Armenian Genocide.
Dr. Ungör's colloquium, titled "Lost in Commemoration: The Armenian
Genocide in Memory and Identity," explored the dichotomy between
Turkey's official state history and popular social memory.
"Yes it is true that Turkey is denying the genocide, but it is the
Turkish state that is denying the genocide," said Dr. Ungör, speaking
from the Netherlands, where he works as the director of graduate
studies at Amsterdam's Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide
Studies. "I think that Turkish society knows about the Genocide,
that they acknowledge the Genocide, and finally that a lot of people
have memories about the Genocide. It should be a task of researchers
to unearth and expose these memories."
In his remarks, Dr. Ungör deconstructed the phenomenon of Turkish
denial, from its Young Turk origins to its evolution into an official
state policy, seeking to reconstruct a new national memory, minus
the crime and its victims.
Dr. Ungör peeled away at Turkey's complex social fabric, revealing
multiple conflicting national narratives about the Armenian Genocide.
He examined the unofficial policies implemented by the Young Turk
regime during World War I and the subsequent development of an
official state policy by successive Turkish governments. He then
compared the narrative taught in schools, promoted in academia,
and projected through foreign policy to a very different reality on
the ground in eastern Turkey, where many Turks and Kurds hold vivid
memories about the crime.
In his conclusion, Dr. Ungör underscored the Turkish government's
failure to completely eradicate the memory of the Genocide from the
lands and people it administers.
In remarks introducing Dr. Ungör, AUA President Dr. Bruce Boghosian
discussed the continuing evolution of discourse about the Armenian
Genocide, explaining that it is moving away from being regarding
as an isolated historical event, and toward being understood as an
ongoing historical process.
"A genocide can not properly be considered over until it is no
longer denied," said Dr. Boghosian. "The Armenian Genocide has the
dubious distinction of being one of the longest denied, and hence,
longest continuing genocidal episodes in modern human history. From
this perspective it should not be considered the Armenian Genocide of
1915-1923, it should be considered the Armenian Genocide of 1915-2013
and counting."
Dr. Ungör is the author of Confiscation and Destruction: The Young
Turk Seizure of Armenian Property, which is a detailed accounting of
all the property seized from Armenians during the Genocide to create
the modern state of Turkey. He is also the author of the award-winning
book The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia,
1913-1950, which examines the process of social engineering, mass
violence and genocide the Young Turks and their Republican successors
utilized as they tried to create a homogeneous Turkey. He is currently
working on a book on paramilitaries in comparative perspective.
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a
private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia and
affiliated with the University of California. AUA provides a global
education in Armenia and the region, offering high-quality, graduate
and undergraduate studies, encouraging civic engagement, and promoting
public service and democratic values.
From: A. Papazian
http://newsroom.aua.am/2013/05/05/reparations-expert-to-explore-armenian-genocide-in-turkish-memory-and-identity/?utm_source=AUA%20Insider%20Newsletter&utm_campaig n=65927e428d-AUA_Insider_May_20135_7_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_ term=0_6c3c4333d4-65927e428d-60502357
MAY 5, 2013 in HUMANITIES, PUBLIC LECTURE, UNIVERSITY
YEREVAN-The Turkish Government is denying a genocide its own population
remembers, according to Dr. Ugur Umit Ungör, who spoke via simulcast
from the Netherlands on May 2, 2013 during the American University
of Armenia's (AUA) annual commemorative talk on the Armenian Genocide.
Dr. Ungör's colloquium, titled "Lost in Commemoration: The Armenian
Genocide in Memory and Identity," explored the dichotomy between
Turkey's official state history and popular social memory.
"Yes it is true that Turkey is denying the genocide, but it is the
Turkish state that is denying the genocide," said Dr. Ungör, speaking
from the Netherlands, where he works as the director of graduate
studies at Amsterdam's Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide
Studies. "I think that Turkish society knows about the Genocide,
that they acknowledge the Genocide, and finally that a lot of people
have memories about the Genocide. It should be a task of researchers
to unearth and expose these memories."
In his remarks, Dr. Ungör deconstructed the phenomenon of Turkish
denial, from its Young Turk origins to its evolution into an official
state policy, seeking to reconstruct a new national memory, minus
the crime and its victims.
Dr. Ungör peeled away at Turkey's complex social fabric, revealing
multiple conflicting national narratives about the Armenian Genocide.
He examined the unofficial policies implemented by the Young Turk
regime during World War I and the subsequent development of an
official state policy by successive Turkish governments. He then
compared the narrative taught in schools, promoted in academia,
and projected through foreign policy to a very different reality on
the ground in eastern Turkey, where many Turks and Kurds hold vivid
memories about the crime.
In his conclusion, Dr. Ungör underscored the Turkish government's
failure to completely eradicate the memory of the Genocide from the
lands and people it administers.
In remarks introducing Dr. Ungör, AUA President Dr. Bruce Boghosian
discussed the continuing evolution of discourse about the Armenian
Genocide, explaining that it is moving away from being regarding
as an isolated historical event, and toward being understood as an
ongoing historical process.
"A genocide can not properly be considered over until it is no
longer denied," said Dr. Boghosian. "The Armenian Genocide has the
dubious distinction of being one of the longest denied, and hence,
longest continuing genocidal episodes in modern human history. From
this perspective it should not be considered the Armenian Genocide of
1915-1923, it should be considered the Armenian Genocide of 1915-2013
and counting."
Dr. Ungör is the author of Confiscation and Destruction: The Young
Turk Seizure of Armenian Property, which is a detailed accounting of
all the property seized from Armenians during the Genocide to create
the modern state of Turkey. He is also the author of the award-winning
book The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia,
1913-1950, which examines the process of social engineering, mass
violence and genocide the Young Turks and their Republican successors
utilized as they tried to create a homogeneous Turkey. He is currently
working on a book on paramilitaries in comparative perspective.
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a
private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia and
affiliated with the University of California. AUA provides a global
education in Armenia and the region, offering high-quality, graduate
and undergraduate studies, encouraging civic engagement, and promoting
public service and democratic values.
From: A. Papazian