1362) Censorship, Indifference, Oblivion The Armenian Genocide And Its Denial By Vicken Cheterian

The genocide of the Armenians is one of the major areas of twentieth-century world history that remains understudied. In spite of its importance as the first modern genocide, which altered the demographic composition of the Middle East, put an end to the Ottoman Empire, and constituted precedence to future genocidal projects, its scholarly research started only recently. The explanation of this major omission is a difficult task. It is pos -sible to trace Turkish policies of censoring any debate or reference toward the fate of the Armenians, even the collaboration of certain Turkish and international institutions whether voluntarily or out of material interest in this effort. Yet the silence is broader and more complex: it nearly suc -ceeded in eliminating the genocide and its victims from living memory even in spaces outside the control of the post-Ottoman Turkish rulers. The aim of this chapter is to reflect on the long oblivion to which the history of the Armenians was condemned, and on the silence before the debate on denialism emerged. This silence sheds light on the workings of political institutions, as well as intellectual and academic power centers, and poses existential questions that have long been ignored.

. . .
.