Israel’s cabinet on Sunday unanimously approved a proposal to recognize the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide, a move likely to anger Turkey and deepen the rift between the two countries.
Relations between Israel and Turkey have sharply deteriorated since the war in Gaza began after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, with Turkey fiercely condemning Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, where more than 75,000 Palestinians have been killed.
“A historic decision: the Israeli government has unanimously approved Foreign Minister Gideon Saar’s proposal to recognize the Armenian genocide,” the foreign ministry said.
The cabinet’s decision must still be ratified by parliament.
“The Armenian genocide remains to this day the subject of an institutionalized campaign of denial and minimization, including a manipulative rewriting of history, mainly by the Turkish government,” Saar said at a cabinet meeting, according to a statement issued by his office.
“I think the time has come for Israel, as a Jewish state, to formally accept this position… It is never too late to do the right thing… this is both a moral and historical duty.”
Successive Israeli governments had avoided formally recognizing the Armenian genocide, in part to preserve relations with Turkey, once one of Israel’s closest strategic partners in the region.
But since the war in Gaza erupted, Turkey has regularly accused Israel of committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, an accusation Israel strongly denies.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has emerged as one of the fiercest critics of the war, repeatedly comparing Israeli leaders to Nazi officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also hit back at Erdoğan, calling him an “anti-semitic dictator who commits genocide against the Kurds.”
Turkey has suspended most trade with Israel and become one of Hamas’s strongest diplomatic supporters.
“This is not an act of retaliation for the open hostility, along with the terrible rhetoric and the hostile action of Turkey, under Erdogan’s leadership, against Israel,” Saar said, referring to the recognition.
“The fact that Turkey promotes false narratives against Israel, does not grant it immunity from historical truths.”
The Armenians seek international recognition that the mass killings of their people under the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917 amounted to genocide.
They say 1.5 million died, but Turkey strongly denies the accusation of genocide and says that both Armenians and Turks died as a result of the First World War.
It puts the death toll in the hundreds of thousands.
The killings have been recognized as genocide by more than two dozen countries, including the United States, France and Germany.
Former US president Joe Biden recognized the killings as genocide, a position long sought by Armenia.
His successor President Donald Trump has not used the same terminology.
Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic ties, but the two have signaled interest in warming relations in recent years.
© Agence France-Presse