Knowing About Genocide: Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles
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SOCIOLOGY | LAW & SOCIETY SAVELSBERG How do victim and perpetrator peoples generate confl icting knowledge about geno- cide? Using a sociology of knowledge approach, Joachim J. Savelsberg answers this question in the context of the Armenian genocide committed during the First World War. Focusing on Armenians and Turks, Savelsberg examines strategies of silencing, denial, and acknowledgment in everyday interactions, public rituals, law, and pol- itics. He draws on interviews, ethnographic accounts, documents, and eyewitness ABOUT KNOWING testimony to illuminate the social processes that drive dueling versions of history. Ulti- mately, this study reveals the counterproductive consequences of denial in an age of human rights hegemony, demonstrating the implications for populist disinformation campaigns against overwhelming evidence. “This pioneering book is critical for understanding the background to Turkish denial as the fi nal stage of genocide. Savelsberg’s epistemic study is a warning against a revived shade of an Orwellian order, with its ‘alternative realities’ and ‘post-truths.’” CLAIRE MOURADIAN, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que, Paris GENOCIDE KNOWING “Knowledge denial is a deadly phenomenon and an urgent problem. Through pains- taking research, unrivaled expertise, and ethical commitment, Joachim J. Savelsberg illuminates how mass harm has been negated or acknowledged.” LOIS PRESSER, ABOUT author of Inside Story: How Narratives Drive Mass Harm “Savelsberg has done a brilliant job in this unique work that for the fi rst time ana- Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles lyzes the Armenian genocide from the vantage point of knowledge construction. A GENOCIDE must-read for all interested in collective violence, social movements, and sociology of knowledge.” FATMA MÜGE GÖÇEK, author of Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Armenian Suffering and Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789–2009 Epistemic Struggles JOACHIM J. SAVELSBERG is Professor of Sociology and Law and Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair, University of Minnesota. He is the author of Representing Mass Violence: Confl icting Responses to Human Rights Violations in Darfur. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS www.ucpress.edu A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Cover photo by Josephe Marando, for the fi lm Nous avons bu la même eau, by Serge Avédikian. © Serge Avédikian. Taken in 1987 in the town of Sölöz, near the city of Bursa, south of Istanbul, the photo depicts the top of a staircase built from Armenian gravestones. The stones were later removed to an unknown location. The Armenian population was evicted from Sölöz in 1915. The story of their displacement is elaborated on p. 43. JOACHIM J. SAVELSBERG Author photo: Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg. Luminos is the Open Access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and reinvigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collabora- tion of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of the University of Minnesota. Learn more at the TOME website, available at openmonographs.org. Knowing about Genocide Knowing about Genocide Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles Joachim J. Savelsberg UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press Oakland, California © 2021 by Joachim J. Savelsberg This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. Suggested citation: Savelsberg, J. J. Knowing About Genocide: Armenian Suffering and Epistemic Struggles. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.99 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Savelsberg, Joachim J., 1951– author. Title: Knowing about genocide : Armenian suffering and epistemic struggles / Joachim J. Savelsberg. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020039753 (print) | LCCN 2020039754 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520380189 (paperback) | ISBN 9780520380196 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Genocide—Sociological aspects. | Armenian massacres, 1915–1923. Classification: LCC HV6322.7 .S385 2021 (print) | LCC HV6322.7 (ebook) | DDC 956.6/20154—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039753 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039754 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Pamela Contents List of Illustrations and Tables ix Preface: Purpose, Author, and Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Epistemic Circle and History of the Armenian Genocide 1 part I. INTERACTION AND MICROPOLITICS OF GENOCIDE KNOWLEDGE 13 1. Social Interaction, Self-Reflection, and Struggles over Genocide Knowledge 15 2. Diaries and Bearing Witness in the Humanitarian Field 33 part II. SEDIMENTATION: CARRIER GROUPS AND KNOWLEDGE ENTREPRENEURS 51 3. Carriers, Entrepreneurs, and Epistemic Power—a Conceptual Toolbox toward an Understanding of Genocide Knowledge 53 4. Sedimentation and Mutations of Armenian Knowledge about the Genocide 66 5. Sedimentation of Turkish Knowledge about the Genocide—and Comparisons 88 part III. RITUALS, EPISTEMIC POWER, AND CONFLICT OVER GENOCIDE KNOWLEDGE 111 6. Affirming Genocide Knowledge through Rituals 113 7. Epistemic Struggles in the Political Field—Mobilization and Legislation in France 132 viii Contents 8. Epistemic Struggles in the Legal Field—Speech Rights, Memory, and Genocide Curricula before an American Court (with Brooke B. Chambers) 162 9. Denialism in an Age of Human Rights Hegemony 186 Conclusions: Closing the Epistemic Circle and Future Struggles 205 Notes 211 References 221 Index 233 Illustrations and Tables FIGURES 1. Epistemic circle: Formation of genocide knowledge in a multicausal process 5 2. Iconic photograph by Armin T. Wegner, a German medic, depicting displaced Armenians on their trek into the Syrian Desert 48 3. Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex, Yerevan 71 4. Billboard on a highway in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, March 2015 78 5. A procession bearing flowers descends into the Memorial Hall, where the Eternal Flame is located, at Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex, Yerevan 119 6. Discussion after a panel at the Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide, Yerevan, 2016, with an image of Mount Ararat as backdrop 121 7. Aurora Prize Ceremony, Yerevan, 2016 123 8. Recognition of the Armenian genocide by countries over time 133 9. Commemorative plaque at a school building on the Île Saint-Louis, Paris, mounted in 2004 137 10. The “French triangle”: Politics, scholarship, and constitutional law within civil society 140 11. Frequency of types of actions and actors identified by Collectif VAN between 2006 and 2016 155 ix x Illustrations and Tables 12. Social organization of plaintiffs and their discourses in Griswold v. Driscoll 178 13. Armenian Heritage Park in Boston 189 14. A crowd gathered in Paris for the first national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide, April 24, 2019 195 15. Frequency of reporting on Armenian affairs in selected U.S. newspapers 197 16. Frequency of reports in news media sample, by treatment vs. control group, over time 198 17. Percentage and frequency of references to “rebellious Armenians” in news media over time 199 MAP 1. Map of the genocide against the Ottoman Armenians, 1915 9 TABLES 1. Comparison of Three Repertoires of Knowledge along Analytic Dimensions 105 2. Arguments Presented by French Senators, January 23, 2012, during Debate over the Boyer Law 144 3. Numbers of Armenian Cultural Associations, by Département, 2015 147 4. Average Numbers of Armenian Cultural Associations in Départements of Senators or Representatives Intervening in Favor of and against Armenian Genocide Legislation, by Date 147 5. Regression Analysis: Armenian Cultural Associations per Département in Relation to Position Taken in Legislative Debates, by Political Party of Speakers and by Date 148 6. Formal-Legal and Substantive Arguments in Griswold v. Driscoll 180 7. French Ministry of Education Guidelines Pertaining to the Armenian Genocide 191 Preface Purpose, Author, and Acknowledgments This book brings together the topic of genocide and a comprehensive sociology of knowledge (360 degrees, as one reader suggested). The empirical focus is on the Armenian genocide. I ask how repertoires of knowledge emerge, among Armenians and Turks and in world society, and what dynamics they unfold. Importantly, by knowledge, I do not mean certified knowledge but simply humans’ taken-for-granted assumptions about the world. Everyday exchanges, or micropolitics, lay the foundation. They involve conflict- ing pressures to silence, deny, or acknowledge. Knowledge entrepreneurs, actors with privileged access to channels of communication, often set the para meters for such exchanges, exercising epistemic power. Some practice radical denial, even against overwhelming evidence—a pattern that reaches beyond the issue of genocide, especially in the current era of authoritarian