Making Public, Forming Publics: Liberal Intellectuals Debate the Armenian Genocide in Contemporary Turkey

Presently, liberal public intellectuals construe this limitation on public discourse as a key obstacle to the democratic development of the state. In this talk, Andrea Karlsson illustrates how Turkish liberal intellectuals, in their dual role as knowledge producers and activists, have introduced a debate on the Armenian issue in the public sphere by creating new "publics" or engaged audience. She provides a nuanced argument of how actors in this particular historical dialogue operate and how issues of public history and memory are mobilized within the framework of broader political projects.