The manufacturing of denial: the making of the Turkish ‘official thesis’ on the Armenian Genocide between 1974 and 1990

Abstract:

This paper analyses the Turkish historiographical encounter with the Armenian genocide in the 1970s and 1980s. It shows how denialism was institutionalized by the 1980s by the post-1980 junta and its academic–political–security complex as a response to the revival of the obscured memories of 1915 after decades of oblivion due to the rise of the Armenian efforts to create an awareness regarding the genocide. Hence, the paper historicizes Turkish denialism. Furthermore, not seeing Turkish denialism as a monolithic discourse, it identifies three modes of Turkish denialism, left wing, right wing and centrist, all entrenched in different ideological sets. The paper also discusses the Turkish national security establishment’s strategies to counter Armenian activism.