Networked Diasporic Memory Work of Assyrian Genocide Remembrance

The Assyrian nation, indigenous to modern-day Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, was first forced into diaspora following the WWI-era genocide (the Seyfo) committed by the Ottoman Empire, in which an estimated 250,000 Assyrians were massacred, and tens of thousands of survivors were prevented from returning to what became the Republic of Turkey. Successive waves of persecution, violence, and ethnic cleansing over the following century further contributed to Assyrian flight from their homeland states, and ultimately the formation of diaspora communities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. In this article, we explore how diasporic memory agents utilize social media to make visible the still largely forgotten and marginalized Assyrian Genocide amongst the diaspora, in kinship with other communities that survived Ottoman genocide, and to the general public. Our study examines the use of social media, specifically Twitter (X) and Facebook, leading up to and on Assyrian Remembrance Day (also known as Assyrian Martyrs Day) on 7 August and Seyfo Remembrance Day (which also commemorates the start of the Armenian Genocide) on 24 April. Narratives of loss and resilience, alongside calls for recognition, help to shape a collective memory across the diverse and multi-generational diaspora, positioning genocide remembrance as a core pillar of Assyrian national memory. Such work also serves to institutionalize genocide remembrance with what we call networked memory work, the strategic use of social media networks by memory agents to transmit the memories and historical narratives of their group to outside organizations, individuals, and institutions so that those outside networks also become carriers of the group's memory, helping to navigate the diaspora through its trauma processing, a process we posit is still incomplete.