On the eve of launching a genocidal conflict in 1939, Adolf Hitler is reported to have asked "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" The event he was referring to was the near decade long systematic destruction of the ethnic Armenian community living in the Ottoman Empire or today's Turkiye.
Hitler was alluding to the old adage 'History is written by the victors.' In essence, you can do the most terrible things but if you come out on top and control the narrative then no one knows or seemingly cares.
A century later, the Armenian genocide hasn't been forgotten though, least of all in the now independent nation of Armenia which borders Turkiye. But Hitler was partially right. History and narratives pertaining to the past aren't always accurate. And today, a rival version of history exists within Turkish society in which there was no genocide.
In this episode, I speak with Prof. Joachim J. Savelsberg author of Knowing About Genocide: Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles. We discuss how trauma and terrible events of the past come to be viewed differently through the prism of society.
Music from Pixabay
Episode Guest: Joachim J. Savelsberg
Joachim J. Savelsberg is Professor of Sociology and Law and Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair at the University of Minnesota. He is the coauthor of American Memories: Atrocities and the Law and author of Crime and Human Rights: Criminology of Genocide and Atrocities.