Belgian and French Parliamentarians and the 1915 Armenian Genocide: What are the Motivations Behind their Positions?

Starting from the 1990s, Belgian and French parliamentarians have discussed and passed several laws and resolutions regarding the Armenian genocide of 1915. These instruments aim to recognise and commemorate the genocide or to condemn its denial.
The presentation will showcase the results of my doctoral research, which was completed in autumn 2023. It studies motivations of Belgian and French parliamentarians who initiated or participated in the processes of adoption of these instruments from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s (7 “episodes” are examined). Specifically, it answers the following question: “What motivates French and Belgian parliamentarians in their instrumentalization of the Armenian genocide?” Following the multiple case study method (Yin, 2018), it investigates and analyses a large variety of data sources including press articles, parliamentary publications, archives and, most importantly, interviews conducted with 42 parliamentarians involved in these processes. Building on the theoretical apparatus developed by the proponents of the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2004), the proposed analysis provides a detailed picture of the motivations of the parliamentarians through individual and microscopic lenses.
This study highlights that, when parliamentarians declare themselves in favour of the selected instruments, their positioning depends mainly on their feeling of relatedness. This relatedness differs between the French and Belgian parliamentarians: their constituency in the case of the former, the institution of affiliation or the political group in the case of the latter. Finally, the research finds that the parliamentarians who are against the selected “memory instruments” mostly value their own competence and autonomy and that their actions should be considered as reactions rather than initiatives.