Armenian Genocide Sociology

resist being recorded in the form of a document. It is most likely because of the legal and social implications that exist around the topic that many individuals withhold their identities completely when they are interviewed. An example of the way in which the sanctions placed on the topic of the Armenian Genocide are expressed on an individual basis is with a ninety-seven-year-old Kurdish man named Osman Bey. During the interview that was conducted with him, one of the sons of Osman asked him quietly to explain to the reporter what happened during the “ferman” (historical evidence of the genocide). After multiple attempts to get the father to speak about the events, the son relayed to reporters that his mother had been Armenian. The reporter
Whether done intentionally or not, Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code will ultimately wipe out all of the memories that exist from the Armenian Genocide. By placing such paralyzing social and legal sanctions on the discussion of the Armenian Genocide, many survivors of the genocide have no option, other than to repress the memories as best as they can. The memories of the Armenian Genocide, while taboo in society, are still alive and pervasive in the lives of those who are survivors, as well as the families of survivors. The story of Osman Bey gives merit to the concept that the Armenian Genocide is taboo in contemporary Turkish society. Many surviving Armenians and their families, on the other hand, struggle to express the memories that they have of the genocide in a society that requires for them to repress such
In a study done by scientists at the New York Mount Sinai Hospital, it was found that trauma is biologically passed on to the children and possibly even grandchildren of survivors of an event such as genocide. This study was conducted on survivors of the Holocaust. The scientists found that there were specific gene changes in the children of Holocaust survivors that could “only have been attributed to Holocaust exposure in the parents.” They found that environmental influences such as smoking, diet and stress could affect the genes of future generations. The scientists were primarily concerned with the gene that is associated with the regulation of stress hormones. They found that there were epigenetic tags on the exact same parts of the genes for parents and their children. What this means in the case of the Armenian genocide is that as the population of survivors that were directly impacted by the genocide are passing away, the trauma that they experienced is spreading to the next generations of