Abstract
The chapter attends to the debates and practical initiatives that, during the late 2000s and early 2010s, formulated political responses to the legacies of violence in Turkey, particularly the Armenian genocide of 1915-16. These have been increasingly approached within a larger discursive frame of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“confronting the past”) that brings into view a transnational field featuring Germany as an important actor. Von Bieberstein formulates a critical analysis of Vergangenheitsbewältigung that approaches it not as a normative set of criteria whose realization could be scientifically verified, but as an assemblage of rhetoric, political rationalities, and technologies put to the service of both critical and hegemonic political projects in Turkey and Germany. This assemblage carries the promise of democratization as well as the enduring force of nationalism.
“Memorial miracle” makes implicit reference to what has been hailed a successful post-economic reconstruction in Germany, the so-called Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle). Vergangenheitsbewältigung has been similarly indexed with inspiring awe. All translations, unless otherwise noted, are mine.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the William Wyse Fund and the European Research Council (grant no. ERC2011_stG_20101124) for the generous support that made the research on which this chapter draws possible.
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von Bieberstein, A. (2017). Memorial Miracle: Inspiring Vergangenheitsbewältigung Between Berlin and Istanbul . In: Gabowitsch, M. (eds) Replicating Atonement . Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65027-2_10
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