Genocide denial
Genocide denial is the attempt to deny or minimize the scale and severity of an instance of genocide. Denial is an integral part of genocide and includes the secret planning of genocide, propaganda while the genocide is going on, and destruction of evidence of mass killings.
Denial is considered a genocidal process, the final stage, and a catalyst or indicator of future atrocities. Prominent examples include: the denial of the Armenian, Bosnian, Cambodian, Gazan and Rwandan genocides, denial of the Holocaust, and denial of genocides against colonized indigenous peoples.
The distinction between historical revisionism and historical negationism, including genocide denial, rests upon the techniques and motivations which are used.
Historical revisionists and negationists rewrite history in order to support an agenda, which is usually political or ideological, by using falsification and rhetorical fallacies in order to obtain their desired results. Exposure of genocide denial and revisionism surged in the early 21st century, facilitated by the propagation of conspiracy theories and hate speech on social media.
Academic analysis
states that denial "is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres".Historian, Richard Hovannisian states, "Complete annihilation of a people requires the banishment of recollection and suffocation of remembrance. Falsification, deception and half-truths reduce what was, to what might have been or perhaps what was not at all." According to historian Taner Akçam, "the practice of 'denialism' in regard to mass atrocities is usually thought of as a simple denial of the facts, but this is not true. Rather, it is in that nebulous territory between facts and truth where such denialism germinates."
David Tolbert, president of the International Center for Transitional Justice, states:
Motives
The main reasons for denying genocide are to evade moral or even criminal responsibility and to protect the perpetrators' reputation or justify their actions. For scholars, another may be careerism.Strategies
Denialist strategies include questioning statistics, denial of intent, definitional debates, blaming the victim, claiming self-defense, media disinformation campaigns, and challenging the victims' group identity. Genocide scholar Israel Charny outlines five psychological characteristics of denials of genocide.Certain denialist phrases are elaborated by genocide scholars Adam Jones:
- "Hardly anybody died"— When the genocides lie far in the past, denial is easier.
- "It wasn't intentional" — Disease and famine-causing conditions such as forced labor, concentration camps and slavery may be blamed for casualties.
- "There weren't that many people to begin with" Minimizing the casualties of the victims, while the criminals destroy or hide the evidence.
- "It was self defense" — The killing of civilians, especially able bodied males is rationalized in preemptive attack, as they are accused of plotting against the perpetrators. The perpetrator may exterminate witnesses and relatives of the victims.
- "There was no central direction" — Perpetrators can use militias, paramilitaries, mercenaries, or death squads to avoid being seen as directly participating.
- "It wasn't or isn't 'genocide,' because..." —Perpetrators may enter definitional or rhetorical argumentation.
- "We would never do that" — Self-image cannot be questioned: the perpetrator sees itself as benevolent by definition. Evidence doesn't matter.
- "We are the real victims" — Perpetrators deflect attention to their own casualties/losses, without historical context.
Prominent examples of denial by non-governmental entities
- In his 1984 book The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas argued that only "a few hundred thousand" Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves because of their behavior, and Zionists had collaborated with the Nazis in an attempt to send more Jews to Israel. In a 2006 interview, without retracting these specific claims, he stated: "The Holocaust was a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind."
- In February 2006 David Irving was imprisoned in Austria for Holocaust denial; he served 13 months in prison before being released on probation.
- David Campbell has written of the now defunct British magazine Living Marxism that "LM's intentions are clear from the way they have sought to publicize accounts of contemporary atrocities which suggest they were certainly not genocidal, and perhaps did not even occur." Chris McGreal writing in The Guardian on 20 March 2000 stated that Fiona Fox writing under a pseudonym had contributed an article to Living Marxism which was part of a campaign by Living Marxism that denied that the event which occurred in Rwanda was a genocide.
- Scott Jaschik has stated that Justin McCarthy, is one of two scholars "most active on promoting the view that no Armenian genocide took place". He was one of four scholars who participated in a controversial debate hosted by PBS about the genocide.
- Darko Trifunovic is the author of the Report about Case Srebrenica, which was commissioned by the government of the Republika Srpska. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia reviewed the report and concluded that it "represented one of the worst examples of revisionism, in relation to the mass executions of Bosniaks committed in Srebrenica in July 1995". After the report was published on 3 September 2002, it provoked outrage and condemnation by a wide variety of Balkans and international figures, individuals, and organizations.
- Patrick Karuretwa stated in the Harvard Law Record that in 2007 the Canadian politician Robin Philpot "attracted intense media attention for repeatedly denying the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis"
- On 21 April 2016 a full-page ad appeared in The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune that directed readers to Fact Check Armenia, a genocide denial website sponsored by the Turkish lobby in the US. When confronted about the ad a Wall Street Journal spokesperson stated, "We accept a wide range of advertisements, including those with provocative viewpoints. While we review ad copy for issues of taste, the varied and divergent views expressed belong to the advertisers."
- American philosopher Steven T. Katz has argued that the Holocaust is the only genocide that has occurred in history.
Prominent examples of denial by governments
Australia
The Australian government has been criticized for engaging in genocide denial and historic revisionism, concerning the treatment of Indigenous people. Prominent Australian politicians have refused to acknowledge the genocide.Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan and Turkey are among two countries which officially deny the Armenian Genocide and glorify previous genocidal acts against Armenians. Eldad Aharon, foreign policy analyst, states that Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide is "fundamental to Azerbaijan's national identity," reinforcing their solidarity within the "one nation, two states" framework. Vicken Cheterian states that the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is deeply influenced by the denial of the Armenian Genocide. Human rights advocates have also criticized Azerbaijan for denying contemporary violence against Armenians.Arsène Saparov, Caucasus expert, states that "the persistent Azerbaijani policy of denial of the Armenian presence and cultural heritage in the Caucasus...has been institutionalized since Ilham Aliyev became president." Following Nagorno-Karabakh's incorporation into Azerbaijan after a military offensive, the Azerbaijani government has undertaken a campaign of Turkification and the destruction of Armenian cultural sites, which aims at denying Armenians' historical presence and justifying their expulsion. Roxanne Makasdjian, executive director of The Genocide Education Project, has stated that "Turkey and Azerbaijan collaborate in a policy of denying the Armenian genocide" in order to erase Armenia and "pave the way for a large ‘Pan-Turkic’ bloc'."
Henry Theriault states that in Turkish and Azeri society denial coexists with the celebration of genocidal acts because there is no accountability: “in such situations, denial is inverted into celebratory or invective declaration...Thus, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s supporters can make explicit statements about completing the genocide of 1915 to eliminate all Armenians, referred to...by Erdoğan as 'Hidden Armenians|leftovers of the sword' that were swung one hundred five years ago...”