“Lessons from the Past”: A Discussion of Politics of Memory in Contemporary Turkey

In Turkey, popular interest in collective memory has reached to unprecedented heights in the last decade. This “memory boom” has pervaded not only popular culture, but also and at the same time it has a substantial impact on the realignment of political scene. The motto “coming to terms with the past” has encapsulated efforts to address a range of serious questions, most recently, the resolution of the Kurdish issue. 

            In my paper, I will ask how “coming to terms with the past” is situated as a new language of “lessons from the past” in contemporary Turkey. I will first look at the particular politico-historical context out of which it has emerged, especially in Europe, and then, turn my attention to some of its key themes like  “trauma”, “history versus memory”, “healing”, “truth&justice”, and “forgiveness.” In particular, my aim is to grasp how this burgeoning public discourse reconfigures temporality, mainly by disrupting national myths as well as by re-arranging the sequence of past, present, and future. While the past is a period of violence, trauma, and oblivion, the present is marked by the "return of the repressed" as well as by the efforts for healing, especially through remembering and forgiving. And, the future signals a period of restored truth and justice. Relying on a set of studies that are critical of theraupetic public discourses, I will conclude my discussion by highlighting some of the promises and perils of "coming to terms with the past" discourse in Turkey.