Patterns of migrant post-memory: the politics of remembering the Sayfo

The Sayfo (or genocide) is remembered in Western Europe by diasporic communities of Arameans, Assyrians and Chaldeans in a variety of ways. Descendants of victims of systematic massacre of Christians by Turks and Kurds in 1915 have developed identities in the context of diaspora post-memory and reflection on a shared history of persecution and violence. A significant problem for diasporic communities is the danger of forgetting the Sayfo and the manipulation of post-memory. The intergenerational transmission of the Sayfo is subject to revision in the context of the changing political and cultural environments of migrant communities, and the migration from Eastern Turkey to Western Europe in the 1970s has had a profound effect on the culture, communication and politics of remembering the Sayfo.