Genocide denial: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Attempt to deny the scale and severity of genocide}}

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{{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<ref name="jgr">{{cite journal |last1=Üngör |first1=Uğur Ümit |author1-link=Uğur Ümit Üngör |last2=Adler |first2=Nanci |date=2017 |title=Indonesia in the Global Context of Genocide and Transitional Justice |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=609–617 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2017.1393985 |doi-access=free|hdl=20.500.11755/8a11750f-fcf9-47f8-b5b7-98028694b12f |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Huttenbach |first1=Henry R. |title=Studies in Comparative Genocide |date=1999 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=978-1-349-27348-5 |pages=216–229 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-27348-5_12 |language=en |chapter=The Psychology and Politics of Genocide Denial: a Comparison of Four Case Studies |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-27348-5_12 |access-date=21 November 2020 |archive-date=18 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618070938/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-349-27348-5_12 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Herf |first=Jeffrey |author1-link=Jeffrey Herf |title-link=The Jewish Enemy |title=The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during the World War II and the Holocaust |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674038-59-2 |page=127}}</ref> and includes the secret planning of genocide, propaganda while the genocide is going on,<ref name="jgr"/> and [[destruction of evidence]] of mass killings.

Denial is considered a genocidal process,<ref name="Marsoobian 21–33">{{Cite journal |last=Marsoobian |first=Armen T. |date=2023-08-01 |title=Genocide by Other Means: Heritage Destruction, National Narratives, and the Azeri Assault on the Indigenous Armenians of Karabakh |url=https://utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/GSI-2023-0009 |journal=Genocide Studies International |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=21–33 |doi=10.3138/GSI-2023-0009 |issn=2291-1847|url-access=subscription }}</ref> the final stage,<ref name="jgr" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Avedian |first=Vahagn |date=2013 |title=Recognition, Responsibility and Reconciliation: The Trinity of the Armenian Genocide |url=https://portal.research.lu.se/en/publications/recognition-responsibility-and-reconciliation-the-trinity-of-the- |journal=Europa Ethnica |volume=70 |issue=3/4 |page=79 |issn=0014-2492 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |access-date=30 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202213835/https://portal.research.lu.se/en/publications/recognition-responsibility-and-reconciliation-the-trinity-of-the- |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Saparov 2023 184–198">{{Cite journal |last=Saparov |first=Arsène |date=2023 |title=Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: What's Next? |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2023.a915234 |journal=Ab Imperio |volume=2023 |issue=3 |pages=184–198 |doi=10.1353/imp.2023.a915234 |issn=2164-9731|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and a catalyst or indicator of future atrocities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Theriault |first=Henry C. |title=Denial: the final stage of genocide? |date=2022 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-367-81898-2 |editor-last=Cox |editor-first=John M. |___location=Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY |chapter=Is denial the final stage of genocide? Consolidation, the metaphysics of denial, and the supersession of stage theory |pages=11–26 |doi=10.4324/9781003010708-1 |editor-last2=Khoury |editor-first2=Amal |editor-last3=Minslow |editor-first3=Sarah |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003010708-1/denial-final-stage-genocide-consolidation-metaphysics-denial-supersession-stage-theory-henry-theriault |archive-date=24 May 2024 |access-date=30 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240524010556/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003010708-1/denial-final-stage-genocide-consolidation-metaphysics-denial-supersession-stage-theory-henry-theriault |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Geracoulis |first=Mischa |title=Media Framing and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage: News Narratives about Artsakh and Gaza |date=2025 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-1-032-83343-9 |series=Routledge Focus on Media and Humanitarian Action |___location=New York |pages=63}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Genocide Watch- Ten Stages of Genocide |url=https://www.genocidewatch.com/tenstages |access-date=2025-07-11 |website=genocidewatch |language=en |quote="Denial is the final stage that lasts throughout and always follows genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres." |archive-date=6 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250206232412/https://www.genocidewatch.com/tenstages |url-status=live }}</ref> Prominent examples include: the denial of the [[Armenian genocide denial|Armenian]], [[Bosnian genocide denial|Bosnian]], [[Cambodian genocide denial|Cambodian]] and [[Rwandan genocide denial|Rwandan]] genocides, denial of the [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust]], and denial of genocides against colonized [[Denial of genocides of Indigenous peoples|indigenous peoples]].<ref name="Dermatossian">{{cite web |date=10 April 2023 |title=Der Matossian explores genocide denialism in the 21st century |url=https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/der-matossian-explores-genocide-denialism-in-the-21st-century/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718085854/https://news.unl.edu/article/der-matossian-explores-genocide-denialism-in-the-21st-century |archive-date=18 July 2024}}</ref> Denial of the [[Gaza genocide]] is also common.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kern |first=Sim |title=Genocide bad: notes on Palestine, Jewish history, and collective liberation |date=2025 |publisher=Interlink Books, an imprint of |isbn=978-1-62371-636-3 |___location=Northampton, MA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mahmutović |first=Adnan |title=Schrödinger’s genocide |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/17/schrodingers-genocide |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref>

'''Genocide denial''' occurs when an otherwise accepted act of [[genocide]] is met with attempts to deny the occurrence and minimize the scale or death toll. The most well-known type is [[Holocaust denial]], but it's definition can extend to any genocidal event that has been minimalized or met with excessive skepticism. Note that denial of [[Armenian Genocide]], the second most contested (and most studied) genocide after the [[Holocaust]], is sometimes referred to simply as "Genocide Denial".

The distinction between [[historical revisionism]] and [[historical negationism]], including genocide denial, rests upon the techniques and motivations which are used.

Most instances of genocide denial are usually considered a form of [[Historical revisionism]]. However, in circumstances where the event in dispute is not seen to constitute genocide by the majority of scholars, the use of the term may be instead considered [[propaganda]]. The extremely serious nature of the crime of genocide, along with the terrible reputation it creates and potential repercussions that may come against a nation as a result of committing it, ensures that whenever genocide is charged, there will be parties that attempt to avoid or divert blame.

Historical revisionists and negationists rewrite history in order to support an agenda, which is usually political or ideological, by using falsification and [[fallacy|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 [[Online hate speech|hate speech]] on [[social media]].<ref name="Dermatossian" />

==Techniques used by Genocide Denialists==

==Academic analysis==

While the arguments made by a genocide denialist vary depending on which genocide is being denied, most arguments have a common basis. Typical denialist accusations include [[conspiracy theories|conspiracies]] stating that the targeted ethnic group conspired against the accused state with its enemies, that death tolls have been exaggerated in order to create undeserved sympathy, that the victims provoked the actions against them, through either armed [[insurrection]] or exploitation of the majority, and that the evidence supporting a genocide thesis was largely fabricated. Denialists often [[Argument from ignorance|argue from ignorance]], approaching the subject without acknowledging eyewitness records or previously made studies, or previous conclusions, and claim falsehood based on lack of direct evidence. Denialists also accumulate pieces of data from less-cited or less-used sources that do not support a genocide thesis and exaggerate them in an attempt to counter records indicating such.

[[Genocide Watch]] states that denial "is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Genocide Watch- Ten Stages of Genocide |url=https://www.genocidewatch.com/tenstages |access-date=2025-07-11 |website=genocidewatch |language=en |archive-date=6 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250206232412/https://www.genocidewatch.com/tenstages |url-status=live }}</ref>

Historian, [[Richard G. Hovannisian|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."<ref>{{cite book |last=Hovannisian |first=Richard G. |title=Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide |date=1998 |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |isbn=081432777X |page=202 |language=en |chapter=Denial of the Armenian genocide in Comparison with Holocaust Denial |access-date=2 October 2020 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726092115/https://books.google.com/books?id=kiBHkRtRmIIC&pg=PA23 |archive-date=26 July 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Killing Orders">{{cite book |last1=Akçam |first1=Taner |author-link=Taner Akçam |title-link=Killing Orders |title=Killing Orders: Talat Pasha's Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-69787-1 |pages=1–2 |language=en}}</ref>

The list of acts of genocide denial is extensive, and proof of genocide is often difficult to obtain, either because governments are involved in the denial or because there is debate whether the occurred atrocities can be considered genocide (especially within a culture discussing its own recent events). For example, [[Ward Churchill]], a controversial scholar and activist in the area of Native American studies, asserts that the concept of holocaust denial applies to the minimization of the significance of attempted extermination of other victims of the Nazi holocaust such as [[Roma people|Gypsies]] and to the marginalization of other "holocausts" such as the near elimination of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]].

[[David Tolbert]], president of the [[International Center for Transitional Justice]], states:

==Denial of Particular Genocides==

{{blockquote|Denial is the final fortress of those who commit genocide and other mass crimes. Perpetrators hide the truth to avoid accountability and protect the political and economic advantages they sought to gain by mass killings and theft of the victims' property, and to cement the new reality by manufacturing an alternative history. Recent studies have established that such denial not only damages the victims and their destroyed communities, it promises a future based on lies, sowing the seeds of future conflict, repression and suffering.<ref name="ICTJ">{{cite news |last1=Tolbert |first1=David |author1-link=David Tolbert |title=The Armenian Genocide: 100 Years of Denial |url=https://www.ictj.org/news/armenian-genocide-100-years-denial |access-date=17 December 2020 |work=[[International Center for Transitional Justice]] |date=24 April 2015 |language=en |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201051001/https://www.ictj.org/news/armenian-genocide-100-years-denial |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

*[[Holocaust denial|Deniers of the Holocaust]] state that the genocide of [[Jew]]s during [[World War II]], referred to as [[the Holocaust]], did not occur.

*The death toll of the [[Great Chinese Famine]] caused by the government of Mao Zedong was higher than China's death toll in the Second World War. This could only be proved some decades later with demographic evidence;

*The [[Nanjing Massacre]] (1937) by the [[Japan]]ese army has been denied by many Japanese politicians, such as [[Ishihara Shintaro]], and mainstream historians;

*The [[Armenian Genocide]] (1915-1917) which was committed by the radical [[Young Turks|Young Turk]] government of the [[Ottoman Empire]] is today [[Denial of the Armenian Genocide|denied by the government of Turkey]], asserting that the mass deaths of Armenians were the result of a civil war coupled with famine, despite the standpoint of the majority of western, Russian and Armenian scholars. Although some Turkish writers are being persecuted for going against the state's official standpoint concerning the event, the situation might change complexion in the coming years, mainly as a result of Turkey's attempt to join the [[European Union]]. The [[Pontic Greek Genocide|Pontic Greek]] and [[Assyrian Genocide]]s that occurred around the same time are similarly denied;

*The [[Holodomor]] famine in Ukraine in 1932-33 killed at least 3 million victims after agricultural produce has been confiscated from peasants by the communist authorities of the Soviet Union. Its genocidal character is denied by authorities and researchers in [[Russia]]. In the West, an example of a Holodomor objector is Canadian journalist [[Douglas Tottle]].

*The [[Ustaše]] genocide by the Croats, who killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs during WWII in [[Jasenovac]] and other places, was denied by Croatian president [[Franjo Tuđman]] and by many others in present day Croatia.

*The genocide of Bengali Hindus and some Muslims in the [[1971 Bangladesh atrocities]] is denied by [[Pakistan]], whose military perpetrated the acts when they were in control of the [[East Pakistan]] region.

*The [[Indonesia]]n genocide in [[East Timor]] during its occupation of the country between [[1975]] and [[1999]] was also denied. The figure of 200,000 dead, first put forward by the Catholic Church in East Timor in [[1982]], accounted for nearly a third of the original population of nearly 700,000. This figure was rejected by the Indonesian government as an exaggeration <ref>[http://www.hamline.edu/apakabar/basisdata/1994/04/29/0001.html Indonesia questions death toll], quoting the ''Jakarta Post'', April 21 and 22, 1994</ref>, as was the figure of 180,000 in a report by East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4637190.stm Army chief denies Timor killings], ''BBC News'', January 22, 2006</ref> in January [[2006]];

*Various war crimes in the former Yugoslavia have been denied by participants in the wars there, and by some in the West. The 1995 [[Srebrenica massacre]], judged to be an act of genocide by the [[International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia]] (ICTY) it the case [[Prosecutor vs. Krstic]], is still denied by some [[Serbs]] (in some cases the denial is whether or not it constituted an act of genocide, not whether or not the massacre took place). American journalist [[Diana Johnstone]] is among those accused of denying or minimising these massacres <ref>[http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/indictments/KocevicRebuttal.htm Alan Kocevic on Johnstone]</ref>, as well as [[Noam Chomsky]] and defunct British magazine [[Living Marxism|LM]]. (see below).

=== Motives ===

==Denial of More Than One Genocide==

The main reasons for denying genocide are to evade moral or even criminal responsibility and to protect the perpetrators' reputation<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Hitchcock |first=Robert K. |title=Denial of genocides in the twenty-first century |date=2023 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |isbn=978-1-4962-3554-1 |editor-last=Der Matossian |editor-first=Bedross |___location=[Lincoln] |pages=33 |chapter=Denial of Genocide of Indigenous People in the United States |oclc=1374189062 |quote=Some of the main reasons for denying genocide are to avoid responsibility and potential prosecution, and to save reputations.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bilali |first1=Rezarta |last2=Iqbal |first2=Yeshim |last3=Freel |first3=Samuel |chapter=Understanding and Counteracting Genocide Denial |editor-first=Leonard S. |editor-last=Newman |title=Confronting Humanity at its Worst: Social Psychological Perspectives on Genocide |___location=New York |publisher=Oxford Academic |date=21 November 2019 |page=285 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190685942.003.0011 |isbn=978-0-19-068594-2 |quote=Groups that commit atrocities are judged negatively, ostracized, and singled out. Members of perpetrator groups are therefore motivated to protect the in-group's positive identity and social image by denying or justifying in-group atrocities}}</ref> or justify their actions.<ref>Badulescu, Cristiana Lavinia. [https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=623684 "Armenians on Azerbaijanis in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Shaping the image of the enemy."] ''Sfera Politicii'' 25.193-194 (2017): 67-75.</ref> For scholars, another may be [[careerism]].<ref>{{cite web |date=October 2006 |title=Open Letter to Scholars Denying Armenian Genocide |url=https://genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Scholars-Denying-Armenian-Genocide-.pdf |website=International Association of Genocide Scholars |quote=As scholars Roger Smith, Eric Markusen, and Robert Jay Lifton noted in their article “Professional Ethics and the Denial of the Armenian Genocide” (Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Spring ’95), scholars who engage in denying genocide are motivated by various factors, including careerism. A Reuters report (3/24/05), titled “Turkey Enlists US Scholar to Fight Genocide Claims,” underscores the degree to which Mr. McCarthy works with the Turkish government in its effort to undermine the truth about the Armenian Genocide. |access-date=12 July 2025 |archive-date=30 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250430034440/https://genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Scholars-Denying-Armenian-Genocide-.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Strategies ===

* The British magazine LM, previously [[Living Marxism]], adopted a highly skeptical attitude to the general consensus of events in conflicts such as Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. This attitude was criticised as being in effect support of mass murderers. In the case of Rwanda the magazine did not deny that mass murder had taken place, but argued that it was a vicious civil war rather than a deliberate attempt to wipe out an ethnic group. The magazine also ran an article which claimed that a picture supposedly showing a Serbian prison camp, was in fact of a safe haven for refugees. They were sued for libel, lost, and as a result went bankrupt in 2000.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20000308064904/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM85/LM85_Rwanda.html Example of LM article on Rwanda]</ref><ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20000325071207/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM88/LM88_Rwanda.html Another LM article on Rwanda]</ref><ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/19991110185707/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM97/LM97_Bosnia.html 'The Picture That Fooled the World' - LM article on Serbia which led to their bankruptcy]</ref><ref>

Denialist strategies include questioning statistics,<ref name=":103">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Jones (Canadian scholar) |title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |date=2010 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-136-93797-2 |pages=791–793 |chapter=Memory, Forgetting, and Denial}}</ref> denial of intent, definitional debates,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stanton |first=Gregory H. |author-link=Gregory Stanton |year=2005 |title=12 Ways to Deny Genocide |url=http://genocidewatch.net/genocide-2/12-ways-to-deny-genocide/ |access-date=28 October 2023 |website=[[Genocide Watch]] |language=en-US |archive-date=28 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231028114508/http://genocidewatch.net/genocide-2/12-ways-to-deny-genocide/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> blaming the victim (sometimes called "mirroring"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cheterian |first=Vicken |date=2018-07-03 |title=The Uses and Abuses of History: Genocide and the Making of the Karabakh Conflict |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2018.1489634 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=70 |issue=6 |pages=896 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2018.1489634 |issn=0966-8136}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-01 |title=Special investigation: Declassified satellite images show erasure of Armenian churches |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/06/01/special-investigation-declassified-satellite-images-show-erasure-of-armenian-churches |access-date=2025-07-12 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events |language=en |quote=The president of Azerbaijan states that Armenians are not indigenous to Nagorno-Karabakh, while mirroring charges of cultural genocide by accusing Armenians of wiping out mosques. Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian sacred sites face a grave risk, not least because Azerbaijani officials continue to deny Nakhichevan’s erasure by declaring that Armenians never existed there |archive-date=31 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230831095327/https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/06/01/special-investigation-declassified-satellite-images-show-erasure-of-armenian-churches |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Green |first=George |url=https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003507970 |title=The Psychology of the Armenian Genocide |date=2025-01-09 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-50797-0 |___location=London |page=41}}</ref> ), claiming self-defense, media disinformation campaigns,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Media War by Azerbaijan and Turkey against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh {{!}} Institute for the Study of Human Rights |url=https://www.humanrightscolumbia.org/news/media-war-azerbaijan-and-turkey-against-armenia-and-nagorno-karabakh |access-date=2025-07-12 |website=www.humanrightscolumbia.org |archive-date=15 July 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250715220049/https://www.humanrightscolumbia.org/news/media-war-azerbaijan-and-turkey-against-armenia-and-nagorno-karabakh |url-status=live }}</ref> and challenging the victims' group identity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Der Matossian |first=Bedross |date=August 2022 |title=Ambivalence to Things ''Armenian'' in Middle Eastern Studies and the War on Artsakh in 2020 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/s002074382200068x |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=530–534 |doi=10.1017/s002074382200068x |issn=0020-7438}}</ref><ref name="Saparov 2023 184–198"/> Genocide scholar Israel Charny outlines five psychological characteristics of denials of genocide.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Charny |first=Israel W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Q30HcvCVuIC |title=Encyclopedia of Genocide |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-87436-928-1 |volume=1 |pages=160 |language=en}}</ref>

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/itn/article/0,2763,184815,00.html criticism of LM over the above article];</ref>

* [[Noam Chomsky]] has been accused of minimising or denying genocide in at least two contemporary cases; the [[Khmer Rouge]] regime in Cambodia.<ref>[http://www.cyberussr.com/hcunn/e-asia/chomsky.html Example of allegation that Chomsky supported the Khmer Rouge], Usenet debate 1996</ref><ref>[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/cambear3.htm The Khmer Rouge Canon 1975-1979]</ref>, and the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. He has also been accused of supporting a Holocaust denier, [[Robert Faurisson]]. Supporters of Chomsky generally argue that the allegations against him are made in bad faith, and that he did not in fact defend or support any genocidal government. The implication is often that his critics are motivated by a desire to smear a prominent lefist, as in for example [http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/1985----.htm this article by Christopher Hitchens] which defends Chomsky in relation to the Khmer Rouge and Faurisson. Similarly, Chomsky claimed that the context of the quote in which he denied the [[Srebrenica massacre]]<ref>[http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/20051031.htm Interview with Noam Chomsky in which he is said to minimise the Srebrenica massacre]</ref> was invented. The newspaper that published it later apologised and retracted the story.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/corrections/story/0,3604,1644017,00.html Guardian retraction and apology for the above interview]</ref> For more detail, see [[Criticism of Noam Chomsky]].

Certain denialist phrases are elaborated by genocide scholars [[Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)|Adam Jones]]:<ref name=":103" />

==Writing On Genocide Denial in General==

* "''Hardly anybody died''" When the genocides lie far in the past, denial is easier.

Gregory H. Stanton, formerly of the US State Department and the founder of Genocide Watch, lists denial as the final stage of a [[genocide development]]:

* "''It wasn't intentional''" Disease and famine-causing conditions such as forced labor, concentration camps and slavery (even though they may be manufactured by the perpetrator) 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 ...''" They 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''" They deflect attention to their own casualties/losses, without historical context.

==Prominent examples of denial by non-governmental entities==

{{cquote|Denial is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims.<ref>Gregory Stanton, [http://www.genocidewatch.org/eightstages.htm Eight Stages of Genocide Denial], Genocide Watch</ref>}}

* 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."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-told-us-to-ignore-israeli-map-reservations-1.8840 |title=U.S. told us to ignore Israeli map reservations |author=Akiva Eldar |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |date=28 May 2003 |access-date=23 March 2014 |archive-date=20 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120164725/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-told-us-to-ignore-israeli-map-reservations-1.8840 |url-status=live}}</ref>

* In February 2006 [[David Irving]] was imprisoned in [[Austria]] for [[Holocaust denial]]; he served 13 months in prison before being released on probation.<ref>{{cite news |author=Staff |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4733820.stm |title=Holocaust denier Irving is jailed |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805031758/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4733820.stm |archive-date=5 August 2019 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=20 February 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Veronika |last=Oleksyn |agency=[[Associated Press]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122000219.html |title=Holocaust Denier Freed, Gets Probation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125162715/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122000219.html |archive-date=25 November 2018 |date=20 December 2006}}</ref>

* [[David Campbell (academic)|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 (as in the case of [[Rwandan genocide|Rwanda]]), and perhaps did not even occur (as in the case of the murder of nearly 8,000 at [[Srebrenica massacre|Srebrenica]])."<ref>{{cite web |first=David |last=Campbell |author-link=David Campbell (academic) |url=http://www.virtual-security.net/attrocity/atroindex.htm |title=ITN vs Living Marxism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040408183256/http://www.virtual-security.net/attrocity/atroindex.htm |archive-date=8 April 2004}}, [http://www.virtual-security.net/attrocity/atrocity2.htm Part 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416030737/http://www.virtual-security.net/attrocity/atrocity2.htm |date=16 April 2008}}. Footnote [49] cites Linda Ryan "[http://archive.serbianunity.net/politics/war_crimes/srebrenica/linda.html What's in a 'mass grave'?, Living Marxism, Issue 88, March 1996] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724061152/http://archive.serbianunity.net/politics/war_crimes/srebrenica/linda.html |date=24 July 2011}}" (The link he provides in the footnote does not exist any more so the link is a substitute). Accessed 20 April 2008</ref><ref name="McGreal-2000-03-20">{{cite news |last=McGreal |first=Chris |url=https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,181819,00.html |title=Genocide? What genocide? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207113616/https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,181819,00.html |archive-date=7 February 2017 |access-date=25 October 2009 |work=[[The Guardian]] |___location=London |date=20 March 2000 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name="McGreal-2000-03-20"/>

* Scott Jaschik has stated that [[Justin McCarthy (American historian)|Justin McCarthy]], is one of two scholars "most active on promoting the view that no Armenian genocide took place".<ref>{{cite news |first=Scott |last=Jaschik |title=Genocide Deniers |url=http://hnn.us/articles/43861.html |date=22 October 2007 |access-date=20 April 2008 |archive-date=22 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022102413/http://hnn.us/articles/43861.html |url-status=live}}</ref> He was one of four scholars who participated in a controversial debate hosted by [[PBS]] about the genocide.<ref name="PBS">{{cite news |title=A PBS Documentary Makes Its Case for the Armenian Genocide, With or Without a Debate |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/arts/television/17stan.html?ex=1302926400&en=42703f4960edef66&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss |date=17 April 2006 |access-date=2 September 2006 |first=Alessandra |last=Stanley |archive-date=28 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160228032855/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/arts/television/17stan.html?ex=1302926400&en=42703f4960edef66&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss |url-status=live}}</ref>

* Darko Trifunovic is the author of the ''[[Report about Case Srebrenica]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&BBID=15401773&v3=1 |title=Brief Record |publisher=US [[Library of Congress]] |access-date=22 April 2009 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511235031/https://catalog.loc.gov/legacy.html |url-status=live}}</ref> which was commissioned by the government of the [[Republika Srpska]].<ref name="Katana">{{cite web |first=Gordana |last=Katana |url=http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=p=tri&l=EN&s=f&o=164405 |title=REGIONAL REPORT: Bosnian Serbs Play Down Srebrenica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511234952/https://iwpr.net/?apc_state=hen&s=o&o=p=tri&l=EN&s=f&o=164405 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |website=Institute for War & Peace Reporting |access-date=25 October 2009}}</ref> The [[International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]] (ICTY) 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".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.icty.org/case/deronjic/4#tjug |title=Judgement against Miroslav Deronjic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326020700/http://www.icty.org/case/deronjic/4#tjug |archive-date=26 March 2010 |website=ICTY}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Katana/><ref name="Newsline030905">{{cite web |title=RFE/RL Newsline, 02-09-03: Bosnian Serbs Deny Srebrenica Massacre... |url=http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2002/02-09-03.rferl.html#70 |author=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] |date=3 September 2005 |access-date=3 July 2009 |archive-date=5 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605084659/http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2002/02-09-03.rferl.html#70 |url-status=live}}</ref>

*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"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hlrecord.org/opinion/release-of-rwanda-s-mastermind-of-death-promotes-genocide-denial-1.951557 |title=Release of Rwanda's mastermind of death promotes genocide denial |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206044153/http://www.hlrecord.org/opinion/release-of-rwanda-s-mastermind-of-death-promotes-genocide-denial-1.951557 |archive-date=6 February 2010 |website=[[Harvard Law Record]] |date=4 December 2009}}</ref>

*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."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newsweek.com/full-page-wsj-ad-denying-armenian-genocide-spurs-anger-450971 |title=Full-Page WSJ Ad Denying Armenian Genocide Spurs Anger |date=21 April 2016 |newspaper=[[Newsweek]] |access-date=21 April 2016 |archive-date=21 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421235119/http://www.newsweek.com/full-page-wsj-ad-denying-armenian-genocide-spurs-anger-450971 |url-status=live}}</ref>

* American philosopher [[Steven T. Katz]] has argued that the Holocaust is the only genocide that has occurred in history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Katz |first=Steven T. |author-link=Steven T. Katz |date=1981 |title=The "Unique" Intentionality of the Holocaust |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1396059 |url-status=live |journal=[[Modern Judaism]] |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=161–183 |doi=10.1093/mj/1.2.161 |issn=0276-1114 |jstor=1396059 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429035521/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1396059 |archive-date=29 April 2023 |access-date=29 April 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="novick">{{cite book |last=Novick |first=Peter |title=[[The Holocaust in American Life]] |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |year=2000 |pages=196–197 |author-link=Peter Novick}}</ref>

== Prominent examples of denial by governments ==

[[George Orwell]] writes in 'Notes on Nationalism' that

{{Expand section|date=July 2021}}

{{POV|date=April 2023}}

{{Undue weight section|date=April 2023}}

=== Australia ===

{{cquote|The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. For quite six years the English admirers of Hitler contrived not to learn of the existence of Dachau and Buchenwald. And those who are loudest in denouncing the German concentration camps are often quite unaware, or only very dimly aware, that there are also concentration camps in Russia. Huge events like the Ukraine famine of 1933, involving the deaths of millions of people, have actually escaped the attention of the majority of English russophiles. Many English people have heard almost nothing about the extermination of German and Polish Jews during the present war. Their own antisemitism has caused this vast crime to bounce off their consciousness. In nationalist thought there are facts which are both true and untrue, known and unknown. A known fact may be so unbearable that it is habitually pushed aside and not allowed to enter into logical processes, or on the other hand it may enter into every calculation and yet never be admitted as a fact, even in one’s own mind.<ref>George Orwell, [http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat Notes on Nationalism]</ref>}}

{{See also|Denial of genocides of Indigenous peoples}}

The Australian government has been criticized for engaging in genocide denial and historic revisionism, concerning the treatment of Indigenous people.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ried |first=James |date=30 March 2016 |title='Invaded' not settled: UNSW rewrites history |url=https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/nsw/2016/03/30/invaded-settled-unsw-rewrite-australian-history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330095450/https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/nsw/2016/03/30/invaded-settled-unsw-rewrite-australian-history/ |archive-date=30 March 2023 |access-date=2 August 2024 |website=[[The New Daily]]}}</ref> Prominent Australian politicians have refused to acknowledge the genocide.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frost |first=Natasha |date=26 July 2023 |title=Colonization Was the 'Luckiest Thing' to Happen to Australia, Ex-Leader Says |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/world/australia/colonization-australia-britain.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730234404/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/world/australia/colonization-australia-britain.html |archive-date=30 July 2023 |access-date=3 August 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Powell |first=Christopher |title=Barbaric Civilization: A Critical Sociology of Genocide |date=15 June 2011 |page=222 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780773585560/html |access-date=3 August 2024 |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] |language=en |doi=10.1515/9780773585560 |isbn=978-0-7735-8556-0 |archive-date=3 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803040758/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780773585560/html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Azerbaijan ===

{{See also|Falsification of history in Azerbaijan}}

Azerbaijan and Turkey are among two countries which officially deny the [[Armenian genocide|Armenian Genocide]] and glorify previous genocidal acts against Armenians.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |date=2021-09-21 |title=Is denial the final stage of genocide? Consolidation, the metaphysics of denial, and the supersession of stage theory |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003010708-1/denial-final-stage-genocide-consolidation-metaphysics-denial-supersession-stage-theory-henry-theriault |journal=Taylor & Francis |language=en |pages=11–26 |doi=10.4324/9781003010708-1/denial-final-stage-genocide-consolidation-metaphysics-denial-supersession-stage-theory-henry-theriault |archive-date=24 May 2024 |access-date=30 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240524010556/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003010708-1/denial-final-stage-genocide-consolidation-metaphysics-denial-supersession-stage-theory-henry-theriault |url-status=live }}</ref> Eldad Aharon, foreign policy analyst, states that Turkey's [[Armenian genocide denial|denial of the Armenian Genocide]] is "fundamental to Azerbaijan's national identity," reinforcing their solidarity within the "[[Azerbaijan–Turkey relations|one nation, two states]]" framework.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ben Aharon |first=Eldad |title=Israel's Foreign Policy and the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: A Reflection on Regional Security and Diplomacy |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2024.2406100 |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=0 |issue=0 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2024.2406100 |issn=1462-3528}}</ref> [[Vicken Cheterian]] states that the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is deeply influenced by the denial of the Armenian Genocide.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cheterian |first=Vicken |date=2018-07-03 |title=The Uses and Abuses of History: Genocide and the Making of the Karabakh Conflict |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2018.1489634 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=70 |issue=6 |pages=884–903 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2018.1489634 |issn=0966-8136}}</ref> Human rights advocates have also criticized Azerbaijan for denying [[Armenia–Azerbaijan border crisis (2021–present)|contemporary violence against Armenians.]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Media War by Azerbaijan and Turkey against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh {{!}} Institute for the Study of Human Rights |url=https://www.humanrightscolumbia.org/news/media-war-azerbaijan-and-turkey-against-armenia-and-nagorno-karabakh |access-date=2025-07-14 |website=www.humanrightscolumbia.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Country Report: Azerbaijan |url=https://www.genocidewatch.com/_files/ugd/09ea84_26e1e4aa71814cf4a78032503d8b55ec.pdf |access-date=2025-07-14 |website=Genocide Watch |language=en |quote=Due to its frequent denial of past atrocities against Armenians, its frequent use of hate speech, and the current targeting of civilians, Genocide Watch considers Azerbaijan to be at Stage 9: Extermination and Stage 10 Denial.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Report: Risk Factors and Indicators of the Crime of Genocide in the Republic of Artsakh: Applying the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes to the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict |url=https://www.lemkininstitute.com/armeniaproject/report%3A-risk-factors-and-indicators-of-the-crime-of-genocide-in-the-republic-of-artsakh%3A-applying-the-un-framework-of-analysis-for-atrocity-crimes-to-the-nagorno-karabakh-conflict |access-date=2025-07-14 |website=Lemkin Institute |language=en |quote= |archive-date=3 July 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250703002307/https://www.lemkininstitute.com/armeniaproject/report%3A-risk-factors-and-indicators-of-the-crime-of-genocide-in-the-republic-of-artsakh%3A-applying-the-un-framework-of-analysis-for-atrocity-crimes-to-the-nagorno-karabakh-conflict |url-status=live }}</ref>

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." <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saparov |first=Arsène |date=2023-01-02 |title=Place-name wars in Karabakh: Russian Imperial maps and political legitimacy in the Caucasus |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2085664 |journal=Central Asian Survey |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=61–88 |doi=10.1080/02634937.2022.2085664 |issn=0263-4937}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-18 |title=The Systematic Erasure of Armenian Christian Heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh |url=https://eclj.org/geopolitics/coe/the-systematic-erasure-of-armenian-christian-heritage-in-nagorno-karabakh?lng=en |access-date=2025-07-14 |website=European Centre for Law and Justice |language=en |archive-date=29 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250429153220/https://eclj.org/geopolitics/coe/the-systematic-erasure-of-armenian-christian-heritage-in-nagorno-karabakh?lng=en |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1">Shaw, Madeleine. [https://www.norwich.edu/documents/journal-peace-war-studies-5th-edition-0#page=209 "Legacy of Loss: The Armenian Genocide in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709143410/https://www.norwich.edu/documents/journal-peace-war-studies-5th-edition-0#page=209 |date=9 July 2024 }} ''Journal of Peace and War Studies'' (2023): 210.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saparov |first=Arsène |date=2023 |title=Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: What's Next? |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/915234 |journal=Ab Imperio |language=en |volume=2023 |issue=3 |pages=184–198 |doi=10.1353/imp.2023.a915234 |issn=2164-9731 |archive-date=3 June 2025 |access-date=14 July 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250603133504/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/915234 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Marsoobian 21–33"/> 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-Turkism|Pan-Turkic’ bloc'.]]"<ref name=":1" />

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[s]]]' that were swung one hundred five years ago...”<ref name=":0" />

=== Canada ===

{{excerpt |Canadian genocide of Indigenous peoples#Denialism}}

=== Croatia ===

{{See also|Denial of the genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia}}

=== Japan ===

{{See also|Nanjing Massacre denial}}

In Japan, interpretation of the [[Nanjing Massacre]] is reflected upon the notions of "pride, honor and shame". Takashi Yoshida describes the Japanese debate over the Nanjing Massacre as "crystalliz[ing] a much larger conflict over what should constitute the ideal perception of the nation: Japan, as a nation, acknowledges its past and apologizes for its wartime wrongdoings; or&nbsp;... stands firm against foreign pressures and teaches Japanese youth about the benevolent and courageous martyrs who fought a just war to save Asia from Western aggression."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yoshida |first=Takashi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TH08DwAAQBAJ |title=The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States |date=2006-03-23 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-518096-1 |pages=129 |language=en}}</ref> In some nationalist circles in Japan, speaking of a large-scale massacre at Nanjing is regarded as {{" '}}[[Japan bashing]]' (in the case of foreigners) or 'self-flagellation' (in the case of Japanese)".<ref name="Askew">{{cite journal |journal=Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies |date=4 April 2002 |title=The Nanjing Incident – Recent Research and Trends |first=David |last=Askew |access-date=24 March 2009 |url=http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/Askew.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180405031715/http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/Askew.html |archive-date=5 April 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> This means that most Japanese youth are oblivious of the massacre because this dark history is not taught in Japanese schools, and the continued worship of Japanese war criminals enshrined in the [[Yasukuni Shrine]] by mainstream politicians in Japan.

=== Pakistan ===

The government of [[Pakistan]] continues to deny that [[1971 Bangladesh genocide|any Bangladeshi genocide]] took place during the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]] of 1971. They typically accuse Pakistani reporters (such as [[Anthony Mascarenhas]]), who reported on the genocide, of being "enemy agents".<ref>"His article was – from Pakistan's point of view – a huge betrayal and he was accused of being an enemy agent. It still denies its forces were behind such atrocities as those described by Mascarenhas, and blames Indian propaganda."{{cite news |title=Bangladesh war: The article that changed history |first=Mark |last=Dummett |author-link=Mark Dummett |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16207201 |newspaper=[[BBC Asia]] |date=16 December 2011 |access-date=27 December 2011 |archive-date=28 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228012639/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16207201 |url-status=live}}</ref> According to Donald W. Beachler, professor of [[political science]] at [[Ithaca College]]:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.instituteforthestudyofgenocide.org/events/2005iagsconference/abstracts/IAGS%202005.proposal.doc |title=Genocide Denial; The Case of Bangladesh |last=Beachler |first=Donald W. |website=Institute for the Study of Genocide |access-date=28 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426074152/http://www.instituteforthestudyofgenocide.org/events/2005iagsconference/abstracts/IAGS%202005.proposal.doc |archive-date=26 April 2012}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The government of Pakistan explicitly denied that there was genocide. By their refusal to characterise the mass-killings as genocide or to condemn and restrain the Pakistani government, the US and Chinese governments implied that they did not consider it so.}}

Similarly, in the wake of the [[2013 Shahbag protests]] against [[war criminals]] who were complicit in the genocide, English journalist [[Philip Hensher]] wrote:<ref>{{cite news |title=The war Bangladesh can never forget |first=Philip |last=Hensher |author-link=Philip Hensher |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-war-bangladesh-can-never-forget-8501636.html# |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=19 February 2013 |access-date=26 February 2013 |archive-date=28 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228012649/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/war-bangladesh-can-never-forget-8501636.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The genocide is still too little known about in the West. It is, moreover, the subject of shocking degrees of denial among partisan polemicists and manipulative historians.}}

=== Russia ===

{{See also|Holodomor denial}}[[Russia]] denies the [[Circassian genocide]], instead describing the events as a mass migration ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Черкесское мухаджирство, <abbr>lit.</abbr> 'Circassian migrationism').<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 2011 |title=Georgia Recognizes Russian 'Genocide' Of Ethnic Circassians |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia_recognizes_russian_genocide_of_ethnic_circassians/24181560.html |access-date=15 January 2021 |website=[[Radio Free Europe]] |archive-date=22 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522000226/https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia_recognizes_russian_genocide_of_ethnic_circassians/24181560.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Georgia Recognizes Circassian Genocide |url=https://eurasianet.org/georgia-recognizes-circassian-genocide |access-date=15 January 2021 |website=Eurasianet |archive-date=21 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521233305/https://eurasianet.org/georgia-recognizes-circassian-genocide |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bodio |first1=Tadeusz |last2=Sieradzan |first2=Przemysław J. |date=15 December 2012 |title=Źródła nacjonalizmu czerkieskiego i jego konsekwencje polityczne |trans-title=Sources of Circassian nationalism and its political consequences |url=https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/ssp/article/view/10748 |journal=Środkowoeuropejskie Studia Polityczne |language=pl |issue=4 |pages=47–74 |doi=10.14746/ssp.2012.4.03 |issn=1731-7517 |doi-access=free}}</ref> In 2009, the [[Presidential Commission to Counter Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia's Interests|Presidential Commission of the Russian Federation to Counter Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia’s Interests]] denied the genocide alongside other crimes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Richmond |first=Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LHlwZwpA70cC |title=The Circassian Genocide |date=2013-04-09 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-6069-4 |pages=2, 169 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Serbia ===

{{Further|Srebrenica massacre|Bosnian genocide denial}}

According to [[Sonja Biserko]], president of the [[Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia]], and Edina Becirevic, the faculty of criminology and security studies of the [[University of Sarajevo]]:

{{blockquote|Denial of the [[Srebrenica genocide]] takes many forms [in Serbia]. The methods range from the brutal to the deceitful. Denial is present most strongly in political discourse, in the media, in the sphere of law, and in the educational system.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2638 |title=Denial of genocide – on the possibility of normalising relations in the region |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231517/http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2638 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |first1=Sonja |last1=Biserko |first2=Edina |last2=Becirevic}}</ref>}}

=== Turkey ===

{{Main|Armenian genocide denial}}

The government of the [[Republic of Turkey]] has long [[Armenian genocide denial|denied]] that the [[Armenian genocide]] was a genocide.<ref name="Reuters">{{cite news |first=Evelyn |last=Leopold |date=9 April 2007 |title=UN genocide exhibit delayed after Turkey objects |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0934951820070410 |access-date=1 July 2017 |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309002844/https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0934951820070410 |url-status=live}}</ref> According to historian Akçam, "Turkish denialism [of the genocide] is perhaps the most successful example of how the well-organised, deliberate, and systematic spreading of falsehoods can play an important role in the field of public debate" and that "fact-based truths have been discredited and relegated to the status of mere opinion".<ref name="Killing Orders" /> Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians residing in the former Ottoman Empire were killed in conflicts with Ottoman forces during World War I, but disputes that the killings were systematic and amounted to genocide. Measures recognising the Armenian genocide languished in the US Congress for decades despite condemnation by genocide scholars,<ref>{{cite web |date=March 2007 |title=IAGS Letter to US Congress on the Armenian Resolution |url=https://genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/US-Congress_-Armenian-Resolution.pdf |website=International Association of Genocide Scholars |access-date=12 July 2025 |archive-date=21 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250321001207/https://genocidescholars.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/US-Congress_-Armenian-Resolution.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and many US presidents refrained from labeling it such due to worries about souring relations with Turkey and intensive lobbying by Ankara.<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 April 2021 |title=Turkey says any U.S. recognition of Armenian 'genocide' would further harm ties |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkey-says-us-recognising-armenian-genocide-will-further-harm-ties-2021-04-20/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002064805/https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkey-says-us-recognising-armenian-genocide-will-further-harm-ties-2021-04-20/ |archive-date=2 October 2023 |access-date=19 September 2023 |work=[[Reuters]] |language=en}}</ref>

=== United States ===

{{See also|Denial of atrocities against Indigenous peoples}}

The government of the United States has been accused of denial of the genocide of its Indigenous peoples<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chavez Cameron |first1=Susan |last2=Phan |first2=Loan T. |date=July 13, 2018 |title=Ten stages of American Indian genocide |url=https://journal.sipsych.org/index.php/IJP/article/view/876 |journal=Revista Interamericana de Psicología/Interamerican Journal of Psychology |volume=52 |issue=1 |language=en-US |doi=10.30849/rip/ijp.v52i1.876 |doi-access=free |archive-date=29 November 2022 |access-date=24 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129074504/https://journal.sipsych.org/index.php/IJP/article/view/876 |url-status=live }}</ref> by academics such as Benjamin Madley,<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Madley |first=Benjamin |title=An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-0300181364 |___location=New Haven |pages=12}}</ref> [[David Stannard]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stannard |first=David E. |author-link=David Stannard |title=American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World |date=1994 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-508557-0 |___location=Oxford, New York |page=221}}</ref> and [[Noam Chomsky]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |author-link=Noam Chomsky |date=1 September 2010 |title=Genocide Denial with a Vengeance: Old and New Imperial Norms |url=https://monthlyreview.org/2010/09/01/genocide-denial-with-a-vengeance-old-and-new-imperial-norms/ |access-date=30 March 2023 |website=[[Monthly Review]] |page=16 |quote=Settler colonialism, commonly the most vicious form of imperial conquest, provides striking illustrations. The English colonists in North America had no doubts about what they were doing. [[American Revolution|Revolutionary War]] hero General [[Henry Knox]], the first Secretary of War in the newly liberated American colonies, described "the utter extirpation of all the Indians in most populous parts of the Union" by means "more destructive to the Indian natives than the conduct of the conquerors of Mexico and Peru", which would have been no small achievement. In his later years, President [[John Quincy Adams]] recognized the fate of "that hapless race of native Americans, which we are exterminating with such merciless and perfidious cruelty, [to be] among the heinous sins of this nation, for which I believe God will one day bring [it] to judgement". |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250208105802/https://monthlyreview.org/2010/09/01/genocide-denial-with-a-vengeance-old-and-new-imperial-norms/ |archive-date=8 February 2025}}</ref>

== Law ==

The [[European Commission]] proposed a [[European Union]]–wide anti-racism law in 2001, which included an offence of genocide denial, but European Union states failed to agree on the balance between prohibiting racism and freedom of expression. After six years of debating, a watered down compromise was reached in 2007 which gave EU states freedom to implement the legislation as they saw fit.<ref name="EthanMcNern">{{cite news |first=Ethan |last=McNern |url=http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Swastika-ban-left-out-of.3342365.jp |title=Swastika ban left out of EU's racism law |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805064029/http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Swastika-ban-left-out-of.3342365.jp |archive-date=5 August 2011 |work=[[The Scotsman]] |date=30 January 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-02-02 |title=EU plans far-reaching 'genocide denial' law |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1541411/EU-plans-far-reaching-genocide-denial-law.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310144102/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/?xml=%2Fnews%2F2007%2F02%2F02%2Fweu02.xml |archive-date=10 March 2020 |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=EU to agree watered-down anti-racism law-diplomats |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL1816833320070418 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070707000320/http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL1816833320070418 |archive-date=7 July 2007 |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=uk.reuters.com |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2022, the [[United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect]] issued a policy paper associating genocide denial with [[hate speech]], specifically when directed to specific identifiable groups. The report gives policy recommendations for states and UN officials in the matter of denial.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 2022 |title=Combating Holocaust and Genocide Denial: Protecting Survivors, Preserving Memory, and Promoting Prevention |url=https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/publications-and-resources/22-00041_OSAPG_PolicyPaper_Feb2023_final[4].pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329153703/http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/publications-and-resources/22-00041_OSAPG_PolicyPaper_Feb2023_final%5b4%5d.pdf |archive-date=29 March 2023 |access-date=April 26, 2023 |website=un.org}}</ref>

== Effects ==

{{tone|date=February 2020}}

Genocide denial has an impact on both victim and perpetrator groups. Denial of a genocide affects relations between the victim and perpetrator groups or their respective countries, prevents personal victims of the genocide from seeking closure, and adversely affects political decisions on both sides. It can cause fear in the victims to express their cultural identity, retaliation from both parties, and hamper the democratic development of societies.

'''Effects on personal victims of the genocide'''

While confrontation of the committed atrocities can be a tough process in which the victim feels humiliated again by reliving the traumatic past,<ref name="Margalit">{{cite book |last= Margalit |first= Avishai |title= The Ethics of Memory |url=https://archive.org/details/ethicsofmemory00avis |url-access=registration |year=2002 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=0-674-00941-X |pages=61–64}}</ref> it still has a benign therapeutic effect, helping both victim and perpetrator groups to come to terms with the past.<ref name="Amstutz">{{cite book |last=Amstutz |first=Mark R. |title=The Healing of Nations: The Promise and Limits of Political Forgiveness |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gTFnh2GuD8EC |year=2005 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=0-7425-3580-0 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511235020/https://books.google.com/books?id=gTFnh2GuD8EC |url-status=live |pages=24}}</ref> From a therapeutic point of view, letting the victim confront the past atrocity and its related painful memories is one way to reach a closure and to understand that the harm has occurred in the past.<ref name="Colvin">{{cite book |last=Colvin |first=Christopher J. |chapter=The Healing of Nations: The Promise and Limits of Political Forgiveness |editor1-first=Katherine |editor1-last=Hodgkin |editor2-first=Susannah |editor-last2=Radstone |title=Contested pasts: The politics of memory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J0VkXJT_zXoC |year=2003 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-415-28647-6 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511235016/https://books.google.com/books?id=J0VkXJT_zXoC |url-status=live |page=156}}</ref> This also helps the memories to enter the shared narrative of the society, thereby becoming a common ground on which the society can make future decisions on, in political and cultural matters.{{sfn|Avedian|2018|p=45}}

Denying recognition, in contrast, has a negative effect, further [[victimising]] the victim which will feel not only wronged by the perpetrator but also by being denied recognition of the occurred wrongdoing. Denial also has a pivotal role in shaping the norms of a society since the omission of any committed errors, and thereby the lack of condemnation and punishment of the committed wrongs, risks normalising similar actions, increasing the society's tolerance for future occurrences of similar errors.{{sfn|Avedian|2018|p=110}}

According to sociologist Daniel Feierstein, the genocide perpetrator implements a process of transforming the identity of any survivors and erasing the memory of the existence of the victim group.<ref>Feierstein, Daniel, (Hinton, Alexander Laban, editor) (2014). ''Hidden Genocides: Power, Knowledge, Memory''. Chapter 5: Beyond the Binary Model: National Security Doctrine in Argentina as a Way of Rethinking Genocide as a Social Practice. [[Rutgers University Press]]. ISBN 9780813561646. [[JSTOR]] j.ctt5hjdfm. pp 79.</ref>

'''Societal effects of genocide denial'''

Bhargava notes that "[m]ost calls to forget disguise the attempt to prevent victims from publicly remembering in the fear that 'there is a dragon living on the patio and we better not provoke it.'"<ref name="Bhargava">{{cite book |last=Bhargava |first=Rajeev |chapter=Restoring Decency to Barbaric Societies |editor1-first=Robert I. |editor1-last=Rotberg |editor2-first=Dennis F. |editor2-last=Thompson |title=Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2h0bqpNh2UC |year= 2000 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=0-691-05071-6 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511234952/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2h0bqpNh2UC |url-status=live |page=52}}</ref> In other words, while societally "forgetting" an atrocity can on the surface be beneficial to the harmony of society, it further victimizes the target group for fear of future, similar action, and is directly detrimental to the sociocultural development of the victim group.

On the other hand, there are cases where "forgetting" atrocities is the most politically expedient or stable option. This is found in some states which have recently come out of minority rule, where the perpetrator group still controls most strategic resources and institutions, such as South Africa.<ref name="Gutman">{{cite book |last1=Gutman |first1=Amy |last2=Thompson |first2=Dennis F. |chapter=The Moral Foundations of Truth Commissions |editor1-first=Robert I. |editor1-last=Rotberg |editor2-first=Dennis F. |editor2-last=Thompson |title=Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2h0bqpNh2UC |year=2000 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=0-691-05071-6 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511234953/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2h0bqpNh2UC |url-status=live |page=39}}</ref> This was, among others, one of the main reasons for granting amnesty in exchange for confessing to committed errors during the transitional period in South Africa. However, the society at large and the victims in particular will perceive this kind of trade-offs as "morally suspect,"<ref name="Rotberg">{{cite book |last1=Rotberg |first1=Robert I. |chapter=Truth Commissions and the Provision of Truth, Justice, and Reconciliations |editor1-first=Robert I. |editor1-last=Rotberg |editor2-first=Dennis F. |editor2-last=Thompson |title=Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2h0bqpNh2UC |year=2000 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=0-691-05071-6 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511234954/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2h0bqpNh2UC |url-status=live |page=8}}</ref> and may question its sustainability. Thus, a common refrain in regard to the Final Report (1998) by South Africa's [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]] was "We've heard the truth. There is even talk about reconciliation. But where's the justice?"<ref name="Bevernage">{{cite book |last=Bevernage |first=Berber |title=History, Memory, and State-Sponsored Violence: Time and Justice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6TJnja5XToC |year=2012 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-88340-5 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511235043/https://books.google.com/books?id=o6TJnja5XToC |url-status=live |pages=47–48}}</ref>

'''Effects on democratic development'''

The denial has thereby a direct negative impact on the development of a society, often by undermining its laws and the issue of justice, but also the level of democracy itself.{{sfn|Avedian|2018|pp=33–38}} If democracy is meant to be built on the rule of law and justice, upheld and safeguarded by state institutions, then surely the omission of legal consequences and justice would potentially undermine the democracy.<ref name="Jelin">{{cite book |last1=Jelin |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Kaufman |first2=Susana G. |chapter=Layers of Memories: Twenty Years After in Argentina |editor1-first=David E. |editor1-last=Lorey |editor2-first=William H. |editor2-last=Beezley |title=Genocide, Collective Violence, and Popular Memory: The Politics of Remembrance in the Twentieth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKPBEx5DbiMC |year=2000 |publisher=SR Books |isbn=0-8420-2982-6 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511235040/https://books.google.com/books?id=MKPBEx5DbiMC |url-status=live |page=36}}</ref> What is more dangerous from a historical point of view is that such a default would imply the subsequent loss of the meaning of these events to future generations, a loss which is resembled to "losing a moral compass."<ref name="DeBrito">{{cite book |last1=De Brito |first1=Alexandra Barahona |last2=Enriquez |first2=Carmen Gonzalez |last3=Aguilar |first3=Paloma |chapter=Introduction |editor1-last=De Brito |editor1-first=Alexandra Barahona |editor2-last=Enriquez |editor2-first=Carmen Gonzalez |editor3-last=Aguilar |editor3-first=Paloma |title=Genocide, Collective Violence, and Popular Memory: The Politics of Remembrance in the Twentieth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BByTH0r588C |year=2001 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-924090-6 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511234956/https://books.google.com/books?id=2BByTH0r588C |url-status=live |page=25}}</ref> The society becomes susceptible to similar wrongdoings in the absence of proper handling of preceding occasions.<ref name="Adler2">{{cite book |last1=Adler |first1=Nanci |chapter=Conclusion |editor1-last=De Brito |editor1-first=Alexandra Barahona |editor2-last=Enriquez |editor2-first=Carmen Gonzalez |editor3-last=Aguilar |editor3-first=Paloma |title=Genocide, Collective Violence, and Popular Memory: The Politics of Remembrance in the Twentieth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BByTH0r588C |year=2001 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-924090-6 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511234956/https://books.google.com/books?id=2BByTH0r588C |url-status=live |page=311}}</ref> Nonetheless, denial, especially immediately after the committed wrongdoings, is rather the rule than the exception and naturally almost exclusively done by the perpetrator to escape responsibility.

'''Implicit denial of genocide'''

While some societies or governments openly deny genocide, in some other cases, e.g. in the case of the "[[Comfort women]]" and the role of the Japanese State, the denial is more implicit. This was evident in how an overwhelmingly majority of the surviving victims refused to accept a monetary compensation since the Japanese government still refused to admit its own responsibility (the monetary compensation was paid through a private fund rather than by the state, a decision perceived by the victims about state's refusal to assume any direct responsibility).<ref name="Minow">{{cite book |last=Minow |first=Martha |title=Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8MRQCwAAQBAJ |year=1998 |publisher=[[Beacon Press]], cop. |isbn=0-8070-4506-3 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511234957/https://books.google.com/books?id=8MRQCwAAQBAJ |url-status=live |page=105}}</ref> This can have the same effects on societies as outright denial. For example, atrocity denial and self-victimisation in Japanese historical textbooks has caused much diplomatic tension between Japan and neighbouring victim states, such as Korea and China, and bolstered domestic conservative or nationalist forces.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schneider |first1=Claudia |title=The Japanese History Textbook Controversy in East Asian Perspective |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |date=May 2008 |volume=617 |pages=107–122 |doi=10.1177/0002716208314359 |jstor=25098016 |s2cid=145570034 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/25098016 |access-date=20 April 2023 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=24 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424014800/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25098016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

'''Turkey and Armenian genocide denial'''

{{Undue weight section|date=April 2023}}

The Turkish state's [[Armenian genocide denial]] has had far-reaching effects on the Turkish society throughout its history in regard to both ethnic minorities, especially the Kurds, but political opposition in general.{{sfn|Avedian|2018|p=48}} The denial also affects Turks, in that there is a lack of recognition of Turks and Ottoman officials who a[[Rescue of Armenians during the Armenian genocide|ttempted to stop the genocide]]. This lack of recognition of the various actors at play in Turkey could{{Weasel inline|date=April 2023}} result in a rather homogeneous perception of the nation in question, thus making Armenians (but also third parties) project the perpetrating role onto the entire Turkish society and nation, causing further racial strife and aggravating the prospects of future reconciliation.{{sfn|Avedian|2018|p=24}} For example, Armenian terrorist groups (e.g. [[ASALA]] and [[Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide|JCAG]]) committed terrorist acts during 1970's and 1980's as a direct result of the Turkish state denial of the genocide.{{sfn|Avedian|2018|p=110}}

=== Prevention ===

Denial may be reduced by works of history, preservation of archives, documentation of records, investigation panels, search for missing persons, commemorations, official state apologies, development of truth commissions, educational programs, monuments, and museums. According to Johnathan Sisson, the society has the right to know the truth about historical events and facts, and the circumstances that led to massive or systematic human rights violations. He says that the state has the obligation to secure records and other evidence to prevent revisionist arguments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sisson |first1=Jonathan |date=2010 |title=A conceptual framework for dealing with the past |url=https://www.eda.admin.ch/dam/eda/mehrsprachig/documents/publications/Politorbis/politorbis-50_EN.pdf |journal=Politorbis |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=11–15 |quote=In order to re-establish fundamental trust and accountability in society, there is a need to acknowledge publicly the abuses that have taken place. (p. 11) It is based on the inalienable right on the part of society at large to know the truth about past events and the circumstances that led to the perpetration of massive or systematic human rights violations, in order to prevent their recurrence in the future. In addition, it involves an obligation on the part of the State to undertake measures, such as securing archives and other evidence, to preserve collective memory from extinction and so to guard against the development of revisionist arguments. (p. 12) These involve symbolic acts, such as an annual homage to the victims, the establishment of monuments and museums, or the recognition by the State of its responsibility in the form of a public apology, that discharge the duty of remembrance and help to restore victims' dignity. Additional measures in this regard foresee the inclusion of an accurate account of the violations that occurred in public educational materials at all levels. (p. 13) Right to know: Truth commissions, Investigation panels, Documentation, Archives, History books & Missing persons.(pp15)}}</ref> Genocide scholar Gregory Stanton suggests that prosecution can be a deterrent.<ref>{{harvnb|Stanton|2020}}: "The best response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished.... When possible, local proceedings should provide forums for hearings of the evidence against perpetrators who were not the main leaders and planners of a genocide, with opportunities for restitution and reconciliation. The Rwandan gaçaça trials are one example. Justice should be accompanied by education in schools and the media about the facts of a genocide, the suffering it caused its victims, the motivations of its perpetrators, and the need for restoration of the rights of its victims."</ref>

==See also==

* [[Outline of genocide studies]]

* ''[[Damnatio memoriae]]''

* [[DARVO]] – Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim & Offender

==References==

{{Reflist}}

<references/>

<!--http://www.sdonline.org/33/ward_churchill.htm-->

===Cited sources===

[[Category:Genocide]]

{{refbegin}}

* {{cite book |last=Avedian |first=Vahagn |title=Knowledge and Acknowledgement in the Politics of Memory of the Armenian Genocide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tv7iuQEACAAJ |year=2018 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-13-831885-4 |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=11 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200911210129/https://books.google.com/books?id=Tv7iuQEACAAJ |url-status=live }}

* {{cite journal |last=Dhamoon |first=Rita Kaur |date=2016 |title=Re-presenting Genocide: The Canadian Museum of Human Rights and Settler Colonial Power |journal=The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics |volume=1 |number=1 |pages=5–30 |doi=10.1017/rep.2015.4}}

* {{cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=David B. |author1-link=David Bruce MacDonald |last2=Hudson |first2=Graham |date=2012 |title=The Genocide Question and Indian Residential Schools in Canada |journal=[[Canadian Journal of Political Science]] |volume=45 |number=2 |pages=427–449 |doi=10.1017/s000842391200039x}}

* {{cite book |last1=Moses |first1=A. Dirk |author1-link=A. Dirk Moses |chapter=Empire, Colony, Genocide: Keywords and the Philosophy of History |pages=3–54 |editor1-last=Moses |editor1-first=A. Dirk |editor1-link=A. Dirk Moses |title=Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84545-452-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBgoNN4MG-YC |ref={{harvid|Moses|2008a}} |archive-date=29 September 2024 |access-date=14 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240929030635/https://books.google.com/books?id=RBgoNN4MG-YC |url-status=live }}

* {{cite web |last=Stanton |first=Gregory |author-link=Gregory Stanton |date=2020 |title=10 Stages of Genocide |url=http://genocidewatch.net/genocide-2/8-stages-of-genocide/ |access-date=21 November 2020 |archive-date=21 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121180313/http://genocidewatch.net/genocide-2/8-stages-of-genocide/ |website=[[Genocide Watch]] |language=en-US |url-status=live }}

* {{cite journal |last1=Woolford |first1=Andrew |last2=Benvenuto |first2=Jeff |title=Canada and colonial genocide |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |date=October 2, 2015 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=373–390 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2015.1096580 |issn=1462-3528 |doi-access=free}}

{{refend}}

==Further reading==

{{Main|Bibliography of genocide studies}}

{{Library resources box}}

* {{cite journal |last=Bartrop |first=Paul R. |author-link=Paul Bartrop |title=Genocide and the Defeat of Memory |journal=Genocide Studies International |volume=14 |number=1 |date=Spring 2020 |pages=9–22 |doi=10.3138/gsi.2021.12.13.03}}

* {{cite journal |last=Charny |first=Israel W. |author-link=Israel Charny |date=2003 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14623520305645 |title=A classification of denials of the Holocaust and other genocides |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |volume=5 |number=1 |page=11 |doi=10.1080/14623520305645|url-access=subscription }}

* {{cite journal |last1=Fassin |first1=Didier |author1-link=Didier Fassin |title=The Rhetoric of Denial: Contribution to an Archive of the Debate about Mass Violence in Gaza |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |date=5 February 2024 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2024.2308941 |s2cid=}}

* {{cite journal |last1=Pech |first1=Laurent |title=The Law of Holocaust Denial in Europe: Towards a (qualified) EU-wide Criminal Prohibition |journal=The Jean Monnet Working Papers |issue=10/09 |url=http://centers.law.nyu.edu/jeanmonnet/papers/09/091001.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407080251/http://centers.law.nyu.edu/jeanmonnet/papers/09/091001.html |archive-date=7 April 2010}}

==External links==

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