Turkish and Kurdish Memories of the Armenian Genocide

Realms of Memory

The beginnings of many nations are marred by traumatic memories. This is certainly true for Turkey. The modern Republic of Turkey began with the dispossession and even eradication of many of the ethnic and religious minorities who had lived for centuries within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian genocide is one of the most prominent examples. In Violence and Genocide in Kurdish Memory: Exploring the Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide through Life Stories, author Eren Yetkin argues that from the time of the genocide, which took place between 1915 and 1918, the government of Turkey has chosen to deny rather than confront the past. While Kurds acknowledge their participation in the genocide they explain it in terms of an instrumentalization thesis in which they were manipulated by Turkish authorities and Kurdish elites. For Kurds, remembering the Armenian Genocide helps them to talk about their own long history of victimization.