Earlier this month, Fatma Muge Goçek, associate professor of sociology and women’s studies at the University of Michigan, gave a lecture at Harvard University’s Knafel Hall as part of a series of seminars on Turkey in the modern world, The Armenian Mirror-Spectator reported.

Titled “Deciphering Denial: Modernity, the Turkish State and the 1915 Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789-2009,” the event drew an audience of about 40, including students, faculty and members of the Turkish and Armenian communities.

Following a brief introduction by Cemal Kafadar, professor of Turkish Studies, Goçek used a PowerPoint slideshow and a historical chart to illustrate her investigation of collective violence against Armenians in Turkey. “The violence against Armenians was the first instance of collective violence in Turkish history,” Goçek said. “I’m a sociologist and when I began to explore this topic, I realized I had entered a political minefield. The nationalists on either side, Turks and Armenians, said I couldn’t be a Turk.”

She continued, “I wanted to explore the contested memoirs of 1915. On the one hand, we have the Armenian Diaspora, which argues that this was the first genocide of the 20th century and that it killed between 800,000 and a million-and-a-half people. The Turkish state, on the other hand, denies that the events were a genocide, calling them reciprocal massacres and claims there was nothing intentional in them. Turkey sets the number of deaths at 400,000, both military and civilians.”

She added, “Most scholars agree that the events were a genocide. Then the question is, why do the Turkish state and society still deny it? This is not just a significant issue for a sociologist; it is a significant issue in Turkey today.”