The goal of this talk is to present and analyze the political opposition between the Armenian and Turkish lobbies in favor or against the official recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United States. We will discuss why, despite decades of efforts and some positive results, the Armenian-American advocacy groups have not yet obtained the full recognition of the Genocide by the U.S. federal authorities and how Turkey and Turkish groups have lobbied to prevent such a recognition.
Julien Zarifian is Associate Professor in American History at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, France, and this academic year he is a Fulbright scholar with the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research. His research interests involve U.S. foreign policies in Eurasia, the role of ethnic groups in U.S. political life, and the importance of memory issues in U.S. political life. Currently, his main research project focuses on The U.S. and the Question of the Armenian Genocide, from 1915 to the Present.
