Memory Conditionality: Armenian Genocide Politics in France, 1998–2012

Scholars widely recognize that memory laws related to the Holocaust have facilitated the integration of several Central and Eastern countries into the European Union (EU). However, less attention has been paid to how memory laws can, for some political actors, work to keep candidate countries out of the Union. For example, Armenian Genocide memory laws (AGMLs) have played an important, understudied role in Turkey’s bid to become an EU member state. This article unpacks political actors’ strategic use of AGMLs to highlight Turkey’s unreadiness to join the EU. In so doing, it introduces the concept of memory conditionality – that is, a strategic use of memory laws to express concerns about a candidate country’s accession to the EU. Memory conditionality takes different forms: In some instances, actors use the memory law to set pre-conditions for entry and encourage the candidate country to acknowledge past wrongs; in others, actors use memory conditionality to oppose a candidate country’s accession altogether. In either case, memory conditionality highlights how memory laws and EU enlargement often intersect. In unpacking the concept of memory conditionality, this article explores AGMLs in France between the late 1990s and early 2010s.