A Hundred Years of Denial: A Study on Turkey’s Treatment of the Armenian Genocide
Abstract:
The Armenian Genocide began on April 24th, 1915. It followed a century of decline in the Ottoman Empire and corresponded with the Ottoman involvement in World War One. The reason for the genocide came from a mixture of rising nationalist identities and wartime fears of an enemy within. After losing the First World War, the remaining people of the Empire fought in the War for Independence. In 1923 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declares the founding of the Republic of Turkey and the begins the denial of the Armenian Genocide. Armenian Genocide denial has changed in its language throughout the past century but the message always stays the same: there was no genocide of the Armenians in 1915 and if there were massacres it was because the Armenians were rebelling against the state. This message was heavily influenced by assassinations of Turkish diplomats in the 1970s and 80s but extremist Armenian Nationalist groups attempting to bring recognition to the 1915 genocide. Denial of the Armenian Genocide is linked to the founding of the Turkish Republic and continues to exist today because of the nation’s struggles with ontological security.