Big Secrets, Small Villages: The Collective Memory of the Assyrian GenocideMass Violence in Modern History 10Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/GBBZHWWM/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.MaryAkdemirBig Secrets, Small Villages: The Collective Memory of the Assyrian Genocidehttp://syriaca.org/cbss/GBBZHWWMhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/GBBZHWWMhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/GBBZHWWMTanerAkçamTheodosiosKyriakidisKyriakosChatzikyriakidisThe Genocide of the Christian Populations in the Ottoman Empire and Its Aftermath (1908–1923)LondonRoutledge2023136-152Mass Violence in Modern History 10The Ottoman Genocides wiped out a significant portion of the Assyrian population native to the Tur Abdin region of Southeast Turkey. For these Assyrians and their descendants, the genocide known as Seyfo represents a pivotal moment in collective cultural history and memory. Decades after the killings, beginning in the 1960s, mass migration prompted by political and economic dissatisfaction led to another drastic decline in the Assyrian population of Tur Abdin. With this exit of Assyrians out of their ancestral lands emerged a transnational boom in cultural production, specifically in music reflecting on life in exile and the memories of one’s homeland.
Sung primarily in the Turoyo language, the music from this period is characterized by lyrical and acoustic components that express seemingly conflicting memories of both suffering and resistance. Focusing on the musicians’ native villages, these songs lament the brutalities of the Seyfo and also pay homage to its resistors or gabore—“heroes”—more than half a century later. A similar dichotomy emerges when examining oral testimony from Seyfo survivors and their descendants. The following paper discusses the narratives depicted by these oral histories, assessing what they reveal about collective trauma, the construction of memory and the socio-political situation of Assyrians in Turkey.
Akdemir, Mary. “Big Secrets, Small Villages: The Collective Memory of the Assyrian Genocide.” In The Genocide of the Christian Populations in the Ottoman Empire and Its Aftermath (1908–1923), edited by Taner Akçam, Theodosios Kyriakidis, and Kyriakos Chatzikyriakidis, 136–52. Mass Violence in Modern History 10. London: Routledge, 2023.
Mary Akdemir, Big Secrets, Small Villages: The Collective Memory of the Assyrian Genocide, in The Genocide of the Christian Populations in the Ottoman Empire and Its Aftermath (1908–1923), ed. Taner Akçam, Theodosios Kyriakidis, and Kyriakos Chatzikyriakidis, Mass Violence in Modern History 10 (London: Routledge, 2023), 136–52.