The Israeli government recognised the Armenian genocide – 'never too late' or 'a new means against Turkey'?
The Israeli government recognised the Armenian genocide – ‘never too late’ or ‘a new means against Turkey’?
On 28 June, the Israeli government, following a proposal by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, unanimously approved a resolution recognising in Ottoman Turkey’s genocide of Armenians. Why has this decision now acquired its significance for the agenda of the Jewish state?
Israel had consistently opposed recognising the Armenian genocide. So what has changed?
Admittedly, the final political and legal formalisation of the recognition of the Armenian genocide is to take place in the Knesset (for Israel is a parliamentary republic). But it was precisely the government of the Jewish state (especially B. Netanyahu and his Likud party) that for a long time denied the fact of this international crime in Ottoman Turkey for three reasons:
First, Israel, in some way, monopolised the crime of genocide and considered that the Holocaust had taken place exclusively against the Jewish people during the Second World War and that the Armenian tragedy of the First World War did not fall into that category;
Second, Israel, finding itself in a rather complex geopolitical environment of Muslim countries, viewed NATO member Turkey as a natural partner in order to break through the Islamic blockade in the region and the negative attitude towards the Zionist regime;
Third, Turkey and Azerbaijan from the 2000s onwards became important partners for Israel in terms of access to Caspian oil and pressure on Iran.
Israeli academic, expert, and political circles........
