Editing Genocide denial (section)

==Analysis==
According to [[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>

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

=== Motives and strategies ===
Some of 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. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1374189062 |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>

Gregory Stanton outlines the tactics of genocide denial including: questioning the statistics, denial of [[intent]], definitional debates, and blaming the victims.<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}}</ref> 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 |volume=1 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-87436-928-1 |pages=160 |language=en}}</ref>

Genocide scholar  [[Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)|Adam Jones]] proposed a framework for genocide denial that consists of several strategies, including minimizing fatalities, blaming fatalities on unrelated "natural" causes, denying intent to destroy a group, and claiming self-defense in preemptive or disproportionate attacks:<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>

* "''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 (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.