In a decision presumably driven by its currently abysmal relations with Turkey, Israel recently recognized the Armenian genocide. “It’s never too late to do the right thing,” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X after the Israeli cabinet unanimously adopted this resolution, which has yet to be approved by the Knesset.

Calling the recognition a “moral imperative” rooted in Jewish identity and history, Sa’ar said that Israel was duty bound to officially recognize what many scholars say was the first genocide of the 20th century.

Historians estimate that upwards of 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turkish authorities during World War I. Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies that it committed genocide. Turkey claims that those killed were victims of unrest and that the death toll was inflated.

To this day, Turkey refers to this atrocity as “the events of 1915” and contends that recognition of it disregards “legal and historical facts.”

Israel’s Muslim ally in the region, Azerbaijan, concurs with Turkey’s one-sided view. Azerbaijan, which is also close to Turkey, released a statement saying, “The decision by the Israeli government concerning the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’ is a matter of serious concern. The distortion of the historical facts surrounding the events of 1915 and the reduction of a complex historical issue to a political decision without a sound legal or scholarly basis are unacceptable.”

Azerbaijan’s position is debatable. Critics contend that Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge this horrendous event is untenable. Sa’ar himself, in a video, said that the facts concerning “the destruction of an ancient and historic cultural heritage” are “not really up........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)