Who gets to be remembered under France's contentious 'memory laws'?

A woman holds French and Armenian flags during a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, at the Paris monument to victims of the Armenian genocide on 24 April 2015. © AFP / KENZO TRIBOUILLARD

In France, 24 April is a national day of remembrance for the Armenian genocide of 1915, when Ottoman troops killed hundreds of thousands of Armenians. Other groups who were victimised want their plight recognised too – but getting a place in France's "memory laws" is controversial, and not an easy process.

"Memory laws are about recognition," says Christophe Premat, a former MP for the French Socialist Party and now an expert in memory studies at Stockholm University.