The Political Instrumentalization of the Armenian Genocide Memory in Europe

From the 1980s, memory laws have played diverse roles in Europe. In Western Europe, Germany and France, in particular, put forward memory laws, which introduced important precedents in terms of their specific formulations and purposes – or, as Danielle Lucksted argues, helped establish ‘mimetic and normative isomorphism’ (2022). However, as scholars have noted, subsequent memory laws emanating from Central and Eastern Europe have served very different ends. In response to pressures from Western Europe, several right-wing populists in post-communist Europe have used memory laws as instruments through which to manifest compliance with the West while also promoting their own purposes, such as exculpating titular nationalities from historical wrongdoing and creating a space to discuss the crimes of communism. And this tendency among right-wing populists to instrumentalize memory recurs outside of Europe. As Nikolay Koposov argues, ‘Manipulative uses of memory have become the hard currency of populist politics all across the world’. As such, scholars usually associate the political instrumentalization of memory with right-wing populists. But this focus can obscure the fact that elected officials across the political spectrum throughout Europe – including those from pro-democratic, left-wing parties – instrumentalize memory to influence perceptions and policies. In fact, memory laws often succeed because diverse political actors support the same projects not only to validate their own views but also to delegitimize the views of other elected officials. Drawing from data collected in diverse European spaces, this presentation will explore the different ways in which political actors instrumentalize Armenian Genocide memory to influence the political present. In particular, this presentation will highlight the contentious narratives political actors construct in their mutual support of Armenian Genocide recognition initiatives.