2.3 Holocaust Denial
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nm u Ottawa L'Universite eanadienne Canada's university mn FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES 1=^1 FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Universite eanadienne Canada's university Johny-Angel Butera AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS M.A. (Criminology) GRADE/DEGREE Department of Criminology FACULTE, ECOLE, DEPARTEMENT / FACULTY, SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT Genocide Denial on the Internet: The Cases of Armenia and Rwanda TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Maritza Felices-Luna DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR CO-DIRECTEUR (CO-DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE /THESIS CO-SUPERVISOR Daniel dos Santos Valerie Steeves Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies GENOCIDE DENIAL ON THE INTERNET: THE CASES OF ARMENIA AND RWANDA Johny-Angel Butera Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the MA degree in Criminology Department of Criminology Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa © Johny-Angel Butera, Ottawa, Canada, 2010 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre r&terence ISBN: 978-0-494-73798-9 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-73798-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permertant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciaies ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi eanadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondares ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ••I Canada ABSTRACT The regimes of truth within society, or those types of discourse accepted and made to function as true by truth-generating apparatuses, determine which events are classified as genocide and the types of evidence that are accepted as proof that a genocide has occurred. Genocide denial can be seen as an attempt to resist a regime of truth by putting forth an alternative analysis of a particular situation. Genocide deniers promote their discourse of denial as legitimate, scholarly efforts at historical revision with the intention of having another version of the truth exposed. Most research on genocide denial has focused primarily on the Holocaust, international debates to legislate genocide denial and the motivations and arguments used to deny genocide. This thesis qualitatively and thematically analyzes sixteen websites and twenty-eight documents to investigate the use of the Internet to produce and circulate discourses questioning the Armenian and Rwandan genocides. It argues that the Internet formulates a space and community in which genocide denial discourse is created, legitimized and disseminated. Then, through a vocabulary of motives framework, this thesis analyzes the logic of denial discourse to identify them as discursive strategies of truth production and to identify the ideological roots of denial. It is found that in Turkey's case, denial is rooted in a sense of collective victimization and nationalism and its presence on the Internet demonstrates the existence of a regime of truth denying the Armenian genocide. For Rwanda, denial is call for the recognition of victim suffering and for justice in revealing an alternative discourse that has been subjugated to the accepted history of the genocide. u Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Maritza Felices-Luna for her unwavering and endless support for this project. Thank you for guiding me in the right direction but always allowing me to discover the research process on my own and for encouraging me to always "take it to another level". I thank my committee, Dr. Valerie Steeves and Dr. Daniel Dos Santos for their time, effort and interest in my work. I also thank Dr. Dominique Robert for the role she played in this thesis. I also extend a special acknowledgement to Dr. Jennifer Kilty. My experience at the University of Ottawa has been a positive one thanks to her mentorship. To my family and especially my parents Lydia and John Butera, I have an eternal debt of gratitude. For twenty-five years my parents have shown me nothing but support and encouragement in my academic endeavors. They have unquestioningly stood behind every decision I have made even when it meant a road trip across the province to pursue my dreams. Finally, I would like to thank my circle of friends, Gabrielle, Ashley, Agata, Jenni, Aaron, and especially Kristina for their support and encouragement throughout this entire process. in "You begin to liquidate a people (...) by taking away its memory. You destroy its books, its culture, its history. And then others write other books for it, give another culture to it, invent another history for it. Then people slowly begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world at large forgets it still faster." — Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements hi Quotation iv Table of Contents v Introduction: History Revisited 1 Chapter Two: Reviewing the Literature on Genocide Denial 5 2.1 Genocide Denial: Issues Over the Legal Framework 8 2.2 Motivations and Arguments Denying Genocide 15 2.2.1 Motivations for Denial 15 2.2.2 Techniques of Denial: Literal, Interpretive, Implicatory 17 2.2.3 Genocide Denial Arguments 19 2.3 Holocaust Denial 22 2.3.1 The Early Holocaust Denial Movement 23 2.3.2 The Holocaust Denial Movement Post-1970 24 2.3.3 The Internet Era 29 Chapter Three: The Armenian and Rwandan Genocides as Case Studies 32 3.1 The Armenian Genocide 32 3.1.1 The History of the Armenian Genocide 32 3.1.2 Recognition of the Armenian Genocide 34 3.2 The Rwandan Genocide 39 3.2.1 The History of the Rwandan Genocide 39 3.2.2 The Role of Rwandan Print and Radio Media in the Genocide 41 3.2.3 The Role of the International Media 43 3.2.4 The Rwandan Crisis as Genocide 45 3.2.5 The Denial of the Rwandan Genocide 46 Chapter Four: Examining Genocide Denial Through Theory 48 v 4.1 Conceptualizing Historical Revision 48 4.2 Vocabularies of Motive 54 4.2.1 Disclaimers and Accounts 55 4.2.2 Vocabularies of Motive as Social Instruments 60 4.3 Disseminating Genocide Denial Through the Media 61 4.3.1 Traditional Media 61 4.3.2 Alternative Media 65 4.4 Research Problem and Goals 71 Chapter Five: Research Methodology 77 5.1 Exploring Genocide Denial Through Qualitative Research 77 5.2 Documentary Analysis 78 5.3 Sampling 81 5.4 Operationalization: A Clarification of Terms 84 5.4.1 Internet, Documents, and Websites 84 5.4.2 Genocide Denial 85 5.5 Analytical Strategies 85 5.5.1 Analyzing the Websites 86 5.5.2 Analyzing the Documents 88 5.6 Ethical Considerations 91 Chapter Six: Mobilizing Strategies of Truth Production 94 6.1 Producing "Truth": The Issue of Legitimacy 94 6.1.1 Rendering Genocide Denial Legitimate: Ascribing Legitimacy 95 6.1.2 Mobilizing Legitimacy: External Strategies 100 6.2 Generating Commitment to the "Cause" 111 6.3 Facilitating Community on the Internet 118 6.4 The Internet as a "Space" 123 Chapter Seven: The Process of Constructing an Alternative Truth 126 vi 7.1 Strategies of De-legitimizing the Accepted Truth 126 7.1.1 The Accepted Truth as Propaganda 127 7.1.2 Attacks on the Reference Definition of Genocide 128 7.1.3 Holocaust Comparisons 131 7.2 Strategies of Legitimizing Alternative Discourse 133 7.2.1 Attacks on the Reference Definition of Genocide 134 7.3 Strategies of Resistance 138 7.3.1 Use of Language 138 7.3.2 Nationalistic Hubris 139 7.4 Creating an Alternative Truth 141 7.4.1 Attacks on the Victim Group 141 7.4.2 Victor's Impunity 145 7.5 Alternative Accounts as Social Instruments 147 Conclusion: The Internet, Alternative Truths and Power Relations 157 References 161 Appendix A 179 Appendix B 180 Appendix C 181 Appendix D 182 Appendix E 183 Appendix F 184 Appendix G 185 Appendix H 187 Appendix 1 189 Appendix J 190 Appendix K 191 Appendix L 194 vn INTRODUCTION: HISTORY REVISITED On October 10th 2009, Turkish and Armenian Foreign Ministers signed historic protocols marking the first bilateral agreement between Turkey and Armenia in eighty-eight years.