An exhibition traces a forgotten drama

It is an exhibition of panels, free and accessible to all, that the Shoah Memorial, in Paris installed in the neighboring pedestrian street (which is also “the alley of the righteous” where a wall lists their names). “But other cities will be able to use it later,” said Claire Mouradian, one of the commissioners. It is designed to be mobile. »»

The objective: to tell, everywhere in France how the genocide of the Armenians took place in Türkiye, of which we commemorate the hundred and one this Thursday, April 24, 2025.

A plane genocide in a context of hatred and exclusion

This date echoes April 24, 1915, when the ultra-nationalist government of young Turks, which had just taken the reins of the Ottoman Empire, launched a first roundup of the intellectuals and notables of Constantinople.

“But in reality, the stigma of the Armenian community of Türkiye was going back well before, with a status of citizen” of the second zone “like all the non -Muslims of Türkiye were. There were significant massacres from the end of the 19th century, explains the historian. Moreover, we observe in Armenia the stages found in all genocides: gradual sidelining of a specific group, massacres of populations, then erasing traces in the landscape and in the collective memory. »»

Understand the roots of the Armenian genocide thanks to an immersive exhibition

And this is all the merit of this exhibition which, if it recalls the brutal facts of the genocide – spoliation of goods, arrests then deportation with exhaustion steps in the desert of long columns of civilians, including women, old men and children, repeated massacres of 1.3 million people (out of around 2 million Armenians) – also endeavors to show the roots of evil.

Using cards, the subject insists a lot on the international context in which the genocide will occur. We are talking about “the Armenian question” from 1878: this small region wedged between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, lock to join the Black Sea Armenia is a strategic issue for these two respective powers and their Western allies which would go into war in 1914 without having ever rescued Armenians whose situation is degraded. Russia and Türkiye play rather to exacerbate local tensions between the Armenians and the Kurds or the Cherkesses to better use them for their benefit.

A memory always lived in the face of the denial of the story

The last panels also recall the consequences of the genocide: how this killing of an entire population inspired Hitler, how despite everything from the officials of officials took place, attempts to re -implanting in Turkey failed, how a third of the Armenian population managed to survive in diaspora and in the Russian control, then become Soviet of Armenia …

The presentation of many photos and period documents is finally there to fight on one level against the policy of erasure still in progress in Turkey, a country which continues to deny the genocide however recognized by the international community since the 1980s.