ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the challenges of elaborating (semi-)official narratives and collective memories of genocidal events in transnational settings and focuses specifically on the tensions between group narratives and individual experiences of extreme violence. It also focuses on Iraqi Kurdish diasporic groups and the emergence of memory after the chemical weapon attack on Halabja in 1988. The chapter describes about Kayvan Mohammad and Shahen Karim who shared their struggle for survival and their experiences. They were minors when the town was attacked with chemical weapons and both sought refuge in Austria. In the Iraqi Kurdish diaspora, around 2008, politicians explained that after the poison gas attack on Halabja, conditions began to change for the better, both in Kurdistan and in Vienna. The political considerations when shaping a national narrative and organizing official commemorations in Kurdistan are partly comparable to those in diasporic settings.
