The government unanimously approved Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s proposal Sunday to recognize the Armenian genocide, a historic move expected to deepen already strained ties with Turkey.
“It is never too late to do the right thing,” Sa’ar said at the Cabinet meeting.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
(Photo: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP)
The resolution says Israel, “on the basis of moral and historical duty,” recognizes the genocide committed against the Armenian people in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. It also calls for condemning denial, minimization or distortion of the historical truth of the events.
Israel had long avoided formal recognition, partly out of concern over relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan. Turkey rejects the genocide label, while Azerbaijan, a strategic partner of Israel that borders Iran and has major arms ties with Jerusalem, has also opposed recognition.
The resolution’s explanatory notes say the genocide began in April 1915 with the arrest, deportation and killing of Armenian intellectuals and leaders in Constantinople. It says Ottoman authorities then systematically targeted the Armenian population, killing men sent to forced labor and deporting women, children and the elderly on death marches toward the Syrian desert.
The text says about 1.5 million Armenians were killed and that a centuries-old cultural and historical heritage in Anatolia was destroyed.
It also says the Armenian genocide remains the subject of an organized denial campaign, particularly by Turkey, despite extensive historical documentation. The proposal notes that 32 countries have recognized the genocide in various ways.