Systemic erasure: How colonial powers weaponize genocide memory to obscure ongoing state violence
Original framing: “The Greek Genocide, memory, and recognition” — bing news
The genocides of Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians were not isolated events but part of a systematic campaign by Ottoman and later Kemalist regimes to homogenize Anatolia, enabled by European imperial powers. Historical parallels include the Herero and Nama genocide in Namibia (1904–1908), the Yazidi genocide under ISIS, and the ongoing Uyghur genocide, all of which follow similar patterns of dehumanization, forced assimilation, and economic exploitation. These patterns reveal how colonial powers and modern states weaponize identity to justify violence.
The Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian genocides are not relics of the past but ongoing processes of cultural and territorial erasure, enabled by colonial legacies and modern state nationalism.
The mainstream focus on 'recognition' obscures the structural mechanisms that perpetuate violence, from the Treaty of Lausanne’s failure to address dispossession to the modern displacement of Pontic Greeks and Assyrians. Indigenous and diaspora voices demand reparative justice—land restitution, language revival, and political autonomy—rather than hollow apologies, yet these perspectives are sidelined in favor of state-sanctioned narratives. The solution lies in decolonizing memory itself, where justice is not a performative gesture but a material transformation, co-designed with affected communities. Without this, the cycle of violence will continue, as seen in the unresolved status of these communities today.