Walls of Silence: Translating the Armenian Genocide into Turkish and Self-Censorship

摘要

The contradictory position of the Armenian massacres of 1915-1916 vis--vis the official ideology of political power and 'national history writing' in Turkey leads to processes of self-censorship by translators, editors and publishers, who strive to abide by social and contextual norms and not to conflict with predominant ideas. This paper analyzes how much of what was written on the events of 1915-1916 can become public knowledge in Turkey; to put it differently, it focuses on how much of the historical narrative of the events can reach Turkish readers and percolate into the discussion taking place in Turkey. For this analysis, Turkish translations of several history books are compared with their originals, taking 'Turkish translation' as the basic unit of analysis. Manipulations and distortions in Turkish translations bring into sharp relief the walls that block freedom to access to information and the limits and obstacles hindering free discussion in Turkey. Thus, they reveal the 'moments of silence' on the issue.