DER ADLER DER GESCHICHTE MOTIVE ZUM KULTURELLEN GEDÄCHTNIS DER ARMENIER
Motives for the Cultural Memory of the Armenians

Summary/Abstract: Monuments serve to compress events and inform us about the way a culture deals with its past, as reflected in the Genocide Monument in Armenia’s capital, which was built in memory of the 1.5 million Armenians murdered in 1915. The associated museum displays documents from countries that have thus far acknowledged the Genocide. Each of these documents presents an inherent problem internationally, however, which is intensified by the very absence of some, namely those of Turkey and the USA. The present decision-making process around a European Union-wide law, concerning genocide denial, embraces the dimension of political memory. The current discourse on Genocide recognition must therefore be identified as bipartisan. In the first part, I will contrast the Brussels’ legal petition, attempting indirectly to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, with the EU-centred policy of cultural memory. The motives underlying the Armenian submission can be explored in another way on behalf of Armenian culture. These motives become more apparent in my discussion of the background to a memorial tablet on the Sardarapat monument, which was built in memory of the Armenian battle against Ottoman invaders in 1918.

• Details
• Contents