Israel Recognizes Armenian Genocide Amid Tensions with Turkey

Israel’s government unanimously voted on Sunday to formally recognize the Armenian genocide, amid worsening ties with Turkey. “Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, 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,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said at a cabinet meeting. “It is widely believed that the Ottoman Empire committed crimes amounting to genocide in a systematic manner, with the aim of destroying the Armenian people,” he added. The Armenian genocide resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. Turkey has consistently rejected the term, but more than 30 nations worldwide — including France, Germany, the U.S., Lebanon and Syria — have recognized the mass killings as a genocide. The Israeli government’s vote comes as the relationship between two of the region’s main powers, which was once robust, has increasingly soured in recent years. The turning point was Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and was sparked after Hamas launched a terror attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. Turkey, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself, has long accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, which Israel has denied. Before the vote on the text, Turkey’s Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz described Israel’s resolution as “an attempt to cover up their own crimes.” Sa’ar claimed the vote was “not an ‘act of retaliation’ for the open hostility, along with the terrible rhetoric and the hostile actions of Turkey, under Erdogan’s leadership, towards Israel.” He added: “Furthermore, the fact that Turkey promotes false narratives against Israel does not grant it immunity from historical truths.”

Turkey’s Vice President also responded to the vote, stating it would not affect Turkey’s stance on the issue.