India Must Also Recognize Armenian Genocide

India’s foreign policy long scores own-goals. India did not recognize Israel until 1992, despite the technological, defense, and intelligence assistance Jerusalem rendered.

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, many Indians were surprised to learn that New Delhi did not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, despite its ties with Pakistan-supported terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba. This continues, even after Hamas leader Nazi Zaheer shared the dais with terrorist commanders in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, weeks before the Pahalgam attack.

Nor is Hamas alone. New Delhi also does not yet designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Tablighi Jamaat, even as Iran’srole in the Delhi blasts outside the Israeli embassy figured in many investigations, and Tablighi Jamaat’s links with jihadi terrorist groups are well-documented. The Israeli cabinet’s recognition of the Armenian genocide highlights yet one more example of Indian diplomatic negligence: India has not yet recognized the Armenian genocide.

In the last few years, Armenia has emerged as India’s top defense partner, with Armenia buying Indian artillery, rocket launchers, and radars. Think-tank collaborations between the two countries, including influential institutions such as the Applied Policy Research Institute, the Orbelli Centre, the Vivekananda International Foundation, the Usanas Foundation, and the Observer Research Foundation, have increased.

Armenia supports India on the Kashmir issue and in its bid for a permanent United Nations Security Council seat. Indian strategic experts cherish civilizational ties with Armenia which they seek to expand into the technology, defense, and commercial fields. However, India refuses to change its stance on the Armenian genocide—the issue that matters most to Armenians and their collective consciousness. And India’s raison d’état is absurd and irrational: to safeguard its cordial ties with Turkey.

Here lies the twist. Historically, Turkey has acted against Indian interests by supporting Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. Following India’s normalization of Kashmir within the Indian state and territory system, Ankara backed Islamabad in multilateral forums and turbocharged Pakistan’s propaganda war against India. Turkey’s official broadcasting platform, Turkish Radio and Television (TRT), provides a platform to an array of Islamist and separatist voices from India.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan perceives Indian Muslims to be critical for his aspiration to revive the Caliphate, on account of the Ottoman Empire’s historic ties with medieval Muslim rulers of India. As a part of this project, Turkey has reached out to radical Islamic clerics, Islamist organizations and Muslim community leaders, sponsored their trips to Turkey, and funded radicalization projects, to mobilize Indian Muslims.

Ankara’s strengthening ties with Bangladesh’s Islamist regime and radical Islamist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami are antithetical to India’s national security. Turkey’s paramilitary SADAT has reportedly nurtured ties with Kashmir’s terrorist groups. During the June 2025 four-day war between India and Pakistan, Pakistan used Turkish drones against India. Turkish military operatives were present on the battlefront in Pakistan.

India’s desire to assuage Turkish diplomatic feelings, especially on a topic where Turkey seeks to promote an ahistoric narrative, makes no sense. It represents a defensive promotion of the status quo, lack of moral clarity, and signals allies like Armenia that it will not stand in solidarity. These are not the signs of countries that nurture great-power aspirations.

India must learn from Israel and recognize the Armenian genocide. India’s recognition would boost its democratic credentials and diplomatic heft in the Western world and serve as a counter to Turkey in the diplomatic and informational domains. Most importantly, India’s move would open the pathways to get global recognition for the Pakistan-backed Islamists’ genocide of Hindu minorities in Kashmir during the three and a half decades of jihadist insurgency.