Peace and Conflict Studies - Spring 2014

Peace and Conflict Studies Volume 21, Number 1 75 institutionalized (p. 44). The Turkish government’s official position is that Armenians were safely deported to Syria and Lebanon; although “gangs” attacked some Armenians and some local authorities acted “irresponsibly,” this “emigration” was successful (Süleyman, 2008, pp. 122-123). This type of reinterpretation of historical events is a common tactic used by governments to “manage outrage” over actions such as genocide (Martin, 2009). The actions of the Turkish government as recently as 1996 put their denial in sharper context. They repatriated the remains of Ismail Enver from Tajikistan several decades after his assassination by an Armenian. Enver was one of the three Young Turk leaders who planned and coordinated the genocide. In Istanbul, the former Ottoman capital, he received a state burial, during which the Turkish president described him as an important national hero and symbol (Gakavian, 1997). This echoes the Turkish government’s state burial of Mehmed Talât on Istanbul’s Hill of Liberty after Hitler returned his remains in 1942, 21 years after Talât’s assassination by an Armenian genocide survivor in Berlin (Power, 2007, pp. 2, 23). In Turkey today, there remain streets, public schools, communities, and mosques honoring Talât’s legacy (Bedrosyan, 2013). The ultimate goal of denial is to prevent the genocide from becoming part of global collective memory (Hovannisian, 2003, p. 2), which, as noted, is the final phase of genocide (Lipstadt in Balakian, 2003, p. 383). Turkey has thus far achieved some success of this final phase of genocide by using political and financial pressure to obfuscate historical fact and deter other nations from officially recognizing the genocide. More and more nations and government bodies have recognized the genocide, including the Council of Europe in 2001 (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute “International Organisations” n.d. This website contains a list of all recognizing governments and organizations). However, Turkey pressures the United States in particular to prevent official recognition. In 2005, an American congressional committee passed two resolutions to officially recognise the Armenian genocide as historical fact, but the Bush administration refused to pass the resolutions due to their military relationship with Turkey (Coloroso, 2008, p. 189). While Barack Obama acknowledged the genocide during his senatorial tenure, he has yet to do so as U.S. president because of America’s strategic partnership with Turkey (Trebitsch, Schültze, & Friedler, 2009). This has a historic precedent as well: when the United States entered World War I, it declared war against Germany but not the Ottoman Empire, choosing to maintain relations with the Turkish government, which ultimately weakened its position in relation to post-war justice for Armenia (Balakian, 2003, ch. 23).