100 Voices after 100 Years: Remembering the Armenian Genocide in Diaspora

• In Event: 228 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 09. Culture and Memory

Abstract

This paper discusses how a group of Armenian youth in Toronto remembers the Armenian Genocide from afar, 100 years after it happened. The data come from 100 Voices: Survival, Memory, Justice, a multimedia project that commemorates the hundredth-year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Through a thematic and visual analysis of a sample of video clips posted on YouTube, this study argues that 100 Voices illustrates a tension, specifically in the terrain of memory-making. 100 Voices stands at the intersection of prevailing constructions of Armenian identity and history on the one hand, and universal discourses of human rights and historical justice, on the other.
In opening up a space for these young individuals to speak up against genocide denial, 100 Voices proposes a distinct generational identity for them as Armenian youth. The participants often articulate this distinct subject position in terms of performing a duty to remember as the youth of the Armenian nation.Nonetheless, while participants embrace this definition of being an Armenian youth, and hence reproducing widely-accepted notions of Armenian identity, history, and ‘cause,’ they simultaneously emerge as the claim-making agents of a struggle for justice. The production team’s emphasis on human rights and genocide education situates the participants as the rights-seeking agents. By deploying audio-visual testimony, particularly as it is used in human rights activism, the production team has also enabled the participants to speak to a wider audience, including Canadian and international publics, calling for support and recognition for claim for truth and justice.

Author

• Duygu Gul Kaya, York University