On Monday, February 24, 2025, the Fresno State Armenian Studies Program hosted Dr. Julien Zarifian for a lecture about the history, memory, and politics of the Armenian Genocide. Dr. Zarifian is a professor of U.S. History and U.S. civilization, with an emphasis in politics, at the University of Poitiers in France. He visited West Coast universities, including UCLA and USC, to give presentations on his new book, The United States and the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory, Politics.

Dr. Zarifian is the author of two books and multiple articles published in journals. He began his undergraduate college career in 2001, where he originally took an interest in the Armenian Genocide and the involvement of other countries, namely Turkey and the United States. He began dedicating his time and research to the question of why the United States never formally recognized the Armenian Genocide as a genocide. He ultimately concluded that the reason the United States never recognized the Armenian Genocide was due to its involvement with Turkey.

When Dr. Zarifian originally began his research, he found that there wasn’t much information available about the United States recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which only peaked his interest and inspired his research even further. That’s when he discovered that “the answer was even more basic than the question” – Turkey. Without Turkey, there would be no reason for the United States to refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide because the United States has political connections with Turkey. If the United States were to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Turkey would change its position towards the United States, which is a risk the United States won’t take.

After coming to this realization, Dr. Zarifian was able to focus his research in that direction, making it easier to gather information. He conducted a lot of research, including reading most of the books edited by by Richard G. Hovannisian on the genocide. The opening of the archives of the Armenian Weekly, together with other Armenian journals, became readily available and with all of these new sources, Dr. Zarifian was able to gain new perspectives to include in his book.

Dr. Zarifian’s book, The United States and the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory, Politics, is separated into three main segments: the United States and the Genocide question, the political struggle for genocide recognition by the United States, and the reasons why it took so long for the United States to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Throughout his years of research and writing, Dr. Zarifian found the most stimulating point was the fact that the United States “has a difficult relationship to the past… and with its own past,” which impacted recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United States.