How Soon We Forget: National Myth-Making and Recognition of the Armenian Genocide

Abstract

ABSTRACTScholars in genocide studies have covered much ground in identifying causes and consequences of genocides. But much less has been done in the area of genocide recognitions: Why have countries recognized some genocides but not others? Strategic and economic relations with perpetrator states, or the influence of diasporan ethnic minorities are often assumed as causes, but we propose that conceptions of national identity may underlie these other factors. We explore a case that other factors do not readily explain: Given New Zealand’s previous bold stances on human rights, its strong self-identity as a human rights supporter, its recognition of some genocides, and its active and vociferous support of Armenians before, during and after the genocide, why does it refuse to recognize the Armenian genocide? We explore New Zealand’s reversal of attitudes by analyzing its public and official discourse in three time periods – first at the time of the Armenian genocide; second, in the late twentieth century when new narratives of national identity, enthusiasm for trade relations with Turkey, and the Anzac myth were established, and third, in the contemporary era, in which successive governments continue to refuse recognition. While we think the anticipated closer economic relations with Turkey during the second timeframe helped drive the shift, we theorize that New Zealand’s current refusal to recognize the genocide is grounded in the construction of its national identity during the second period – particularly in the establishment of the Anzac myth. This involved a changing portrayal of “the Turks” from enemy to fellow victims of the evils of war and imperial invasion, and modern-day Turkey as the sacred “home” of New Zealand’s war dead.KEYWORDS: GenociderecognitionNew Zealandhuman rightsArmeniannational identity Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Raymond Kévorkian, The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011); Taner Akçam, A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility (London: Macmillan, 2006); Ronald Suny, They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015); Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi, The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019).2 Jennifer Dixon, “Norms, Narratives, and Scholarship on the Armenian Genocide,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 47, no. 4 (2015): 796–800.3 World Population Review, “Countries that recognize the Armenian genocide,” https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-that-recognize-the-armenian-genocide (accessed 29 August 2023).4 Bahar Baser and Mari Toivanen, “The Politics of Genocide Recognition: Kurdish Nation-Building and Commemoration in the Post-Saddam Era,” Journal of Genocide Research 19, no. 3 (2017): 404–26; Yossi Shain and Aharan Barth, “Diasporas and International Relations Theory,” International Organization 57, no. 3 (2003): 449–79; Bahar Baser and Ashok Swain, “Diaspora Design Versus Homeland Realities: Case Study of Armenian Diaspora,” Caucasian Review of International Affairs 3, no. 1 (2009): 45–62.5 Maria Koinova, “Diaspora Coalition-Building for Genocide Recognition: Armenians, Assyrians and Kurds,” in Diaspora Mobilizations for Transitional Justice, ed. Maria Koinova and Dženeta Karabegović (London: Routledge, 2020), 82–102; Maria Koinova, “Conflict and Cooperation in Armenian Diaspora Mobilisation for Genocide Recognition,” in Diaspora as Cultures of Cooperation: Global and Local Perspectives, ed. David Carment and Ariane Sadjed (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 111–29.6 Jaana Davidjants and Katrin Tiidenberg, “Activist Memory Narration on Social Media: Armenian Genocide on Instagram,” New Media & Society 24, no. 10 (2022): 2191–206; Harut Sassounian, “Genocide Recognition and a Quest for Justice,” Loyola of Los Angeles International & Comparative Law Review 32 (2010): 115.7 Julien Zarifian, “The Armenian-American Lobby and Its Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy,” Society 51, no. 5 (2014): 503–12.8 All references following to country populations of diasporic Armenians are from: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “International migrant stock 2019: Table 1. Total migrant stock at mid-year by origin and by major area, region, country or area of destination, 1990–2019,” 2019, un.org (archived from the original on 9 March 2021; alt URL).9 This according to Professor of International Relations Khatchik Der Ghougassian (Universidad de San Andres), who said in an interview, “Not only does an organized Armenian community not exist in Bolivia, but I also doubt if there are any Armenians actually living in the country. … It is evident that the idea for the resolution came from the Bolivians themselves.” Rupen Janbazian, “Der Ghougassian Discusses Bolivia’s Recognition of the Armenian Genocide,” The Armenian Weekly, https://armenianweekly.com/2014/12/09/der-ghougassian-discusses-bolivias-recognition-of-the-armenian-genocide/.10 Emil Souleimanov and Maya Ehrmann, “The Issue of the Recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a Political Phenomenon,” Middle East Review of International Affairs 18, no. 1 (2014): 25–37.11 Daniel Fittante, “Sweden’s ‘Complicated’ Relationship with Genocide Recognition,” Acta Sociologica (2022): 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1177/00016993221141587.12 See for example: Nahal Toosi, “Top Obama Aides ‘Sorry’ They Did Not Recognize Armenian Genocide,” Politico, 19 January 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/19/armenian-genocide-ben-rhodes-samantha-power-obama-349973 (accessed 23 October 2022).13 Fittante, “Sweden’s ‘Complicated’ Relationship,” 9.14 Geoffrey Robertson, “Was There an Armenian Genocide?” University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy 4, no. 2 (2010): 83–127.15 Ibid., 87.16 Michelle Tusan, “‘Crimes Against Humanity’: Human Rights, the British Empire, and the Origins of the Response to the Armenian Genocide,” American Historical Review 119, no. 1 (2014): 47–77.17 Ibid.18 Julien Zarifian, “The United States and the (Non-)Recognition of the Armenian Genocide,” Études Arméniennes Contemporaines 1 (2013): 75–95.19 For further discussion, see Vahakn N. Dadrian, “The Signal Facts Surrounding the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish Denial Syndrome,” Journal of Genocide Research 5, no. 2 (2003): 269–79; Taner Akçam, From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide (London: Zed Book, 2004); Richard G. Hovannisian, “Denial of the Armenian Genocide 100 Years Later: The New Practitioners and Their Trade,” Genocide Studies International 9, no. 2 (2015): 228–47; Doğan Gürpınar, “The Manufacturing of Denial: The Making of the Turkish ‘Official Thesis’ on the Armenian Genocide Between 1974 and 1990,” Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 18, no. 3 (2016): 217–40.20 Jennifer Dixon, Dark Pasts: Changing the State’s Story in Turkey and Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018), 5.21 See, for example, Anthony Giddens, “The Self: Ontological Security and Existential Anxiety,” in Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge: Polity, 1991): 35–69; Dovile Budryte, Erica Almeida Resende, and Douglas Becker, “‘Defending Memory’: Exploring the Relationship Between Mnemonical In/Security and Crisis in Global Politics,” Interdisciplinary Political Studies 6, no. 1 (2020): 5–19.22 Ibid.23 Giddens, “The Self”; Brent Steele, Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-Identity and the IR State (New York: Routledge, 2008).24 Jelena Subotic, “Political Memory, Ontological Security, and Holocaust Remembrance in Post-Communist Europe,” in Ontological Insecurity in the European Union (New York: Routledge, 2020), 48–65.25 Akçam, From Empire to Republic.26 Daniel Fittante, “‘Out-Europeanizing’ the Competition: Armenian Genocide Recognition in Bulgaria,” Europe-Asia Studies 74, no. 10 (2022): 1895–914.27 James Robins, When We Dead Awaken: Australia, New Zealand, and the Armenian Genocide (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020), 112–3.28 Stats NZ, “Armenian Ethnic Group,” 2018, https://www.stats.govt.nz/tools/2018-census-ethnic-group-summaries/armenian29 Stephen Noakes and Charles Burton, “Economic Statecraft and the Making of Bilateral Relationships: Canada-China and New Zealand-China Interactions Compared,” Journal of Chinese Political Science 24 (2019): 411–31.30 Hamish Cardwell, “‘Shameful’ Suppression of Armenian Flag at Ataturk Memorial,” RNZ, 6 May 2022, https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/466609/shameful-suppression-of-armenian-flag-at-ataturk-memorial31 Vukan Jokic and Maria Armoudian, “Familiar Yet Foreign: Armenians in the New Zealand Imagination Before the Armenian Genocide,” Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 27, no. 1 (2020): 85–98.32 “A Reign of Terror in Armenia,” Poverty Bay Herald, 7 April 1981, 2.33 “Turkish Atrocities in Armenia. Too Awful to Describe,” Taihape Daily Times, 16 December 1915, 5.34 Robins, When We Dead Awaken.35 “Education: Teachers' and Civil Service Examinations,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1896, Session I, E-1A, 15.36 “Education: Teachers' and Civil Service Examinations,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1897, Session II, E-1A, 10.37 “Education: Teachers' and Civil Service Examinations,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1894, Session I, E-1A, 8.38 Robins, When We Dead Awaken, 112–3.39 Erik Sjöberg, War and Genocide, vol. 23, The Making of the Greek Genocide: Contested Memories of the Ottoman Greek Catastrophe (New York: Berghahn Books, 2016).40 Winston Churchill, The World Crisis, vol. 5, The Aftermath (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929), 405.41 Jock Phillips, “Between Acceptance and Refusal: Soldiers' Attitudes Towards War (New Zealand)” in 1914–1918 Online: International Encyclopaedia of the First World War, ed. 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Available at: https://www.mfa.gov.tr/lausanne-peace-treaty-part-v-miscellaneous-provisions-1_prisoners-of-war.en.mfa61 “Preying on Armenia,” The Dominion, 8 September 1919, 7.62 “Menace to India,” New Zealand Herald, 16 December 1919, 11; “Turkish Politics,” The Sun Christchurch, 14 October 1919, 7.63 “General Cable News,” Oamaru Mail, 3 October 1919, 5.64 “Constantinople’s Kaleidoscopic Conglomeration,” Otago Witness, 24 August 1920, 51.65 “Future of Turkey,” Evening Post, 20 December 1920, 6.66 “Crisis in the Near East,” Nelson Evening Mail, 18 September 1922, 4.67 Robins, When We Dead Awaken, 113.68 Ibid.69 “Despatches From the Governor-General of New Zealand to the Secretary of State of the Colonies,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1918, Session I-II, A-02.70 “Patriotic Funds,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1920, Session I, H-46; “Appropriations,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1923, Session I-II, B-07.71 “Summary of Proceedings,” Imperial Conference, 1923, 33.72 “League of Nations,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1925, Session I, A-05.73 “Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties,” Preliminary Peace Conference, 1919.74 “Crimes of the War,” New Zealand Herald, 14 July 1919, 5.75 “Former Enemy,” Poverty Bay Herald, 4 May 1934, 4.76 McGibbon, “Gallipoli,” 47.77 Jenny Macleod and Gizem Tongo, “Between Memory and History: Remembering Johnnies, Mehmets and the Armenians,” in Beyond Gallipoli: New Perspectives on Anzac, ed. 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Hans-Lukas Kieser, Pearl Nunn, and Thomas Schmutz (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021), 231–62.122 Eamon Sloan, “Remember the Armenian Genocide,” The Dominion Post, 24 April 2015, 8; Haydn Rawstron, “Armenians’ Horror,” The Press, 28 April 2015, 10.123 Colin Anderson, “Urge Turkey to Mark Genocide,” The Dominion Post, 30 April 2015, 10.124 “Greens Call For Remembrance of Armenian Genocide,” Scoop, 24 April 2015.125 Mike Grimshaw, “Time NZ Recognised Armenian Genocide,” The Press, 27 April 2016, 12.126 John Vile, “Turks Killed Millions,” The Press, 28 April 2016, 12.127 Jim Rose, “Gallipoli Wasn’t a Fool’s Errand,” The Dominion Post, 1 May 2017, 6.128 Lisa Owen and Patrick Gower, “The Inconvenient Anzac Story You Have Never Heard,” Newshub Nation, TV3, Auckland, 25 April 2021.129 Philip Matthews, “Anzacs and Atrocities: Will New Zealand Ever Recognise the Armenian Genocide?” Stuff, 3 February 2021; Maria Armoudian, “Time to Acknowledge Armenian Genocide,” The New Zealand Herald, 23 April 2021, A038; “Anzac Day – The Way Forward,” The Nelson Mail, 24 April 2021, 6; Gareth Hughes, “A Stain on New Zealand’s Moral Record,” Newsroom, 24 April 2022; Lorne Kuehn, “Wilful Pariah?” The Press, 28 April 2021, 14.130 Stephanie Johnston, “Petition 2020/252 on the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides,” 15 August 2022, https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/53SCPET_EVI_123865_PET3137/8e2812e2e0dc92c462078eafe79a38623623adf2.131 Gerard Burns, “Noble Protest,” The Dominion Post, 11 May 2022, 24.132 Jennifer Dixon, “Defending the Nation? Maintaining Turkey’s Narrative of the Armenian Genocide,” South European Society and Politics 15, no. 3 (2010): 467–85.133 Dixon, Dark Pasts, 57–8.134 Ibid., 86.135 Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, “Response to Petition of Barnabas Fund New Zealand: Recognise the Armenian Genocide,” October 2022, https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/53SCFD_EVI_123865_FD1474/9766e07fb3d086449fa4658d103af6e4c345de64 (accessed 30 November 2022).136 Julia Hollingsworth, “NZ Armenians Call for Genocide to be Recognised,” Newshub, 14 April 2015.137 Jacinda Ardern in “Armenians of New Zealand Urge PM to Change Stance on Armenian Genocide,” NEWS.am, 8 August 2018, https://news.am/eng/news/465549.html.138 Nanaia Mahuta in “Pressure Mounts on NZ Govt To Formally Recognise Armenian Genocide,” NewsHub Nation, TV3, Auckland, 24 April 2021.139 Jacqui True and Maria Tanyag, “Violence Against Women/Violence in the World: Toward a Feminist Conceptualization of Global Violence,” in The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security, ed. Caron E. Gentry, Laura J. Shepherd, and Laura Sjoberg (London: Routledge, 2018), 241.140 Stephanie Johnston, “Petition 2020/252 on the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides,” 15 August 2022, https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/53SCPET_EVI_123865_PET3137/8e2812e2e0dc92c462078eafe79a38623623adf2.141 Ryan Manton, “Prosecutorial Discretion and the Prosecution of International Crimes in New Zealand,” New Zealand Armed Forces Law Review 9 (2009): 96–129.142 Michael Hornsby, “Euro MPs Threaten Lange's Lamb Exports: Rushdie Controversy,” The Times, 22 February 1989.143 Phil Goff, “The New Zealand/Turkey Economic Relationship,” (speech, Wellington, 12 December 2006).144 Stats NZ, “New Zealand International Trade,” 2022, https://statisticsnz.shinyapps.io/trade_dashboard/.145 Madison Reidy, “Turkey Sacks New Zealand Foreign Ambassador, Nine Other Western Diplomats for Demanding Osman Kavala’s Release,” Newshub, 24 October 2021, https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2021/10/turkey-sacks-new-zealand-foreign-ambassador-nine-other-western-diplomats-for-demanding-osman-kavala-s-release.html.146 Dovile Budryte, Erica Almeida Resende, and Douglas Becker, “‘Defending Memory’: Exploring the Relationship between Mnemonical In/Security and Crisis in Global Politics,” Interdisciplinary Political Studies 6, no. 1 (2020): 5–19.147 Notably, the inclusion of a portion of soil from Anzac Cove is encased and displayed in the Atatürk Memorial in Wellington.148 Whaitiri, “Māori MP at Gallipoli.”149 Rowan Light, Anzac Nations: The Legacy of Gallipoli in New Zealand and Australia, 1965–2015 (Otago: Otago University Press, 2022).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by National Association for Armenian Studies and Research: [Grant Number].Notes on contributorsMaria ArmoudianMaria Armoudian is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, co-director of Nga Ara Whetu, Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Society, the founding host/producer of the radio programme, The Scholars’ Circle, and the author of three acclaimed books, Lawyers Beyond Borders Advancing International Human Rights through Local Laws and Courts; Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World; and Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future. She has published widely on human rights, environmental politics, communication, and good governance.Katherine SmitsKatherine Smits is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations and head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Auckland. Her books include Reconstructing Postnationalist Liberal Pluralism, Applying Political Theory and Feminist Moments. She has published widely on liberal political theory, nationalism, multiculturalism and identity politics.