JERUSALEM — Israel’s government voted unanimously on Sunday to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, ending decades of diplomatic reluctance and delivering a historic rebuke to Turkey as relations between the two regional powers continue to deteriorate.
The resolution, introduced by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, was approved by the Cabinet and will now move to the Knesset for final legislative consideration.
“The Israeli government approved a short time ago the resolution I presented recognizing the Armenian Genocide,” Sa’ar said following the vote. “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
Calling the decision a “moral and historical duty,” Sa’ar said the genocide, carried out during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, claimed the lives of approximately 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 and destroyed an ancient civilization’s cultural heritage.
“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,” Sa’ar told ministers during the 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.
Israel had long avoided formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide because of diplomatic and security considerations involving Turkey, a former strategic ally.
Sunday’s vote marks one of the most significant changes in Israeli foreign policy toward Ankara in decades.
The decision comes as relations between Israel and Turkey have sharply declined under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkish leaders have repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide during the war in Gaza, allegations Israel has categorically rejected.
Ankara has also expanded its military and political footprint across Syria, Lebanon, and other parts of the region, developments Israeli officials increasingly view as a strategic threat.
Sa’ar rejected suggestions that Sunday’s vote was motivated by retaliation against Turkey’s increasingly hostile posture.
“This is not an act of retaliation for the open hostility, the terrible rhetoric and hostile actions of Turkey under Erdogan’s leadership toward Israel,” he said.
“The fact that Turkey promotes false narratives against Israel does not grant it immunity from historical truths.”
The move also follows recent remarks by President Donald Trump regarding Turkey’s regional ambitions.
Earlier this week Trump said that Turkey had considered entering the fighting alongside Iran in the current conflict but claimed he was able to prevent such an escalation because of his personal relationship with Erdogan.
“He was a prime candidate to go into the war with Iran — maybe on the Iran side, because he’s not a big fan of Israel,” Trump stated.
“I asked him to stay out. He stayed out,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
More than 30 countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Canada, and Russia, have formally recognized the Armenian Genocide.
Turkey continues to reject the characterization, acknowledging that many Armenians died during World War I but disputing that the deaths constituted genocide.
If approved by the Knesset, Israel would join a growing list of nations formally recognizing one of the twentieth century’s most consequential atrocities, while further widening the diplomatic divide between Jerusalem and Ankara.
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