On the News Blog:
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La dernière catastrophe: l’histoire, le présent, le contemporain
Elizabeth Rechniewski, reviews Henry Rousso's 2012 book, 'La dernière catastrophe: l’histoire, le présent, le contemporain.' -
Memory, Politics and Identity: Haunted by History
Aline Sierp, of Maastricht University reviews Cillian McGrattan's 2012 book, 'Memory, Politics and Identity: Haunted by History.' -
Commemorating Hell: The Public Memory of Mittelbau-Dora
Steven Cooke of Deakin University reviews Gretchen Schafft and Gerhard Zeidle's 2011 book 'Commemorating Hell: The Public Memory of Mittelbau-Dora.'
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French Genocide Bill Angers Turkey
A bill due to go before the French parliament on Thursday would make it illegal to deny the 1915 Armenian genocide. The draft law proposes a one year prison sentence and 45,000 euro fine for anyone guilty of denying the killings constitute genocide.
In a press conference last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned France to examine its own ‘dirty and bloody history’ before making laws regarding Turkish history.
‘Let it go to the trouble of highlighting and looking at what happened in Africa, in Rwanda and Algeria,’ Erdogan said. He suggested the bill was aimed at pleasing the 500,000 French voters of Armenian descent.
France officially recognised the Armenian genocide in 2001. French President Nicholas Sarkozy has previously urged Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide, but the Turkish givernment maintains the events of 1915 do not fit the definition of genocide.