The Israeli government’s recent decision to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide sparked predictably angry reactions from Turkey and Azerbaijan; however, the reaction from Armenia has largely been muted. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan downplayed the significance of the Israeli government’s move while speaking to reporters in Yerevan. 

“We see no need to respond because we believe that refraining from entering into the issue of the weaponization of the Armenian Genocide is in the interests of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan said. 

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has previously noted major genocide announcements or memorials around the world, did not issue any statement regarding the Israeli government’s acknowledgment. 

The Armenian National Committee also released a tepid statement welcoming the move, while also accusing Israel of playing a role in the deaths of Armenians during the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. 

A harsher reaction to the cabinet’s decision was offered by the former Armenian parliament member Mihran Hakobyan, who wrote, “It is the pinnacle of immoral cynicism that the 1915 Armenian Genocide is being ‘recognized’ by a fascist state which, from the moment of its founding, has been — after Turkey — the most active in fighting against the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, has directly participated in the patricide of Armenians in Artsakh, and is carrying out an obvious genocide in Gaza.” 

A similar position was expressed by Serj Tankian, an Armenian-American and the lead singer of the heavy metal band System Of A Down, which is composed entirely of Armenian descendants. In an expletive-laced reaction video posted to Instagram, he accused the Israeli government of using Armenian history and pain for “political advantage.” 

“For many years, Israel’s government used AIPAC to lobby the U.S. Congress to not recognize the Armenian Genocide, to prevent Congress from recognizing the Armenian Genocide due to their relationship with Turkey, their intelligence sharing with Turkey, etc.,” Tankian said. 

“Today, the Netanyahu cabinet decided to recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915, a genocide that led to Hitler thinking that he could do what he could do to the Jews in the 1930s and 40s,” he continued.

“The fact that this government is already committing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon, decided to recognize the genocide of my grandparents, is the worst f—ing thing that they could have done to Armenians by using our history, our genocide, our pain to their political advantage,” Tankian said.

The harsh words by Hakobyan and Tankian illustrate the pain many Armenians feel over the failure of the Israeli government to officially recognize the genocide, which many historians believe led directly to the Holocaust. 

However, not all Armenian leaders reacted as cynically to the Israeli cabinet’s move. Bishop Koryun Baghdasaryan, a senior leader and dean of the manor of Jerusalem’s Armenian Patriarchate, said that in making this move the government “fulfilled its moral duty.” 

“It means a lot for the State of Israel, for the Jewish people,” Bishop Baghdasaryan told The Jerusalem Post, “because as a nation that went through the Holocaust, and right after the Holocaust established the State of Israel, it was really the moral duty for the State of Israel to recognize the Armenian Genocide.” 

Predictably, the reaction by Turkey was sharp, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accusing Israel of “slander.” 

“There are many slander campaigns going on by this network of murderers who had the blood of 73,000 innocent Gazans on their hands,” Erdoğan said. 

“In our history, there have been no genocides, no massacres, oppression, and no colonialism. Throughout our thousands of years of glorious history, there has only been justice and compassion,” he claimed. 

Erdoğan’s press secretary Burhanettin Duran accused Israel of using the announcement to “cover up” its killings of Palestinians. 

“Israel’s recognition of the events of 1915 as a so-called ‘genocide’ is nothing more than a futile attempt to cover up the blood of innocent Palestinians shed by its own hands, its own state terrorism in the Middle East, and its crimes against humanity committed with impunity,” Duran wrote in a post to social media. 

Israel’s regional partner, Azerbaijan, which has a majority Turkic population and speaks a Turkish dialect, called the announcement “a matter of serious concern.” 

“The decision by the Israeli government concerning the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’ is a matter of serious concern,” the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry said. 

“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,” the statement continued, while calling on the Israeli government to “reconsider this decision.” 

So why has Israel’s long-sought recognition provoked such a tepid reaction among many Armenians? The answer lies in changing political realities of the major parties involved. 

The Turkish government has long denied any systematic Ottoman government program targeting Armenians. While acknowledging that many Armenians were killed, the government has long blamed the deaths on “civil war” and tension related to World War I. 

The genocide has its roots in the broader Islamic-Christian regional conflict stretching back over a millennium. 

Most of the Anatolian Peninsula, modern-day Turkey, was captured from the Christian Byzantine Empire by the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, which involved the massacre of many Christians. Under later dynasties, including the Ottomans, Armenian Christians refused to convert to Islam. 

During World War I, many Armenians joined Russia, itself a Christian nation, in attacking the Ottomans. In retaliation, the Ottoman Empire began forcibly conscripting adult males, while forcing women, children, and the elderly out of historic Armenian territory. According to many historians, somewhere between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed during this time. 

For many years, the Israeli government supported the Turkish stance due to the political cost of angering the Turkish government. Historically, Turkey was one of Israel’s strongest regional partners in the decades before Erdoğan’s Justice and Development (AKP) party came to power. 

Similarly, Israel has not wanted to offend Azerbaijan, which provides roughly 40% of Israel’s oil imports along with a strategic border with one of Israel’s primary enemies, the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Turkey had deep economic and military ties with Israel during the 1970s-1990s. With the rise of Erdoğan’s Islamist party to power, that relationship began to deteriorate rapidly, especially following the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, when Israeli military forces intercepted several vessels from Turkey that were attempting to break the blockade on Gaza imposed after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. 

Activists in the flotilla attacked Israeli soldiers as they were boarding one of the vessels, which led to the death of several people. That incident provided Erdoğan with the political cover to disrupt relations with Israel, which had become increasingly unpopular in the religious sector of Turkey. 

While the two nations attempted to restore ties, the start of the October 2023 Gaza War brought a further worsening of relations, after Erdoğan’s government refused to condemn the Hamas attacks and began accusing Israel of “genocide” at the start of the ground campaign. 

With the worsening relations and increasing threats by members of the Erdoğan government being directed against Israel, the former political calculus against angering Turkey no longer holds. 

Many Armenian leaders see the current recognition of the genocide in light of that Israel-Turkey conflict, not as a benevolent gesture by the Israeli government. 

Similarly, the timing of the Israeli announcement appears to be aimed at causing Turkey to lose face just before it hosts the NATO Leaders’ Summit in Ankara next week, as it attempts to re-enter the F-35 program. 

Additionally, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was only recently re-elected, has been leading a movement away from demanding recognition of the 1915 genocide, and towards peace and integration with both Turkey and Azerbaijan, as part of a push to deepen ties with Europe. 

As election results came in on June 8, Pashinyan said, “The people of Armenia voted for peace, regional prosperity and regional cooperation, and I hope this will be met with a positive response from Turkey and Azerbaijan.” 

From Pashinyan’s perspective, the growing antagonism between Israel and Turkey, already threatening to escalate into a major regional conflict, could not come at a worse time.

Just as he attempts to move on from the defeat in and loss of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, in which Israel played a part by supplying weapons to Azerbaijan, the Israeli government, for reasons of its own, has chosen to acknowledge the one issue which could drive a wedge between Armenia and its neighbors. 

If Israel is to convince Armenia that the recognition is not just political theater, it will have to treat the issue with the same respect that it demands for Holocaust remembrance.

Rabbi Shneur Segal, Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Azerbaijan, sent the letter to Ofir Katz, Chairman of the Likud Faction, on Monday following the Israeli government’s vote.

If the Knesset recognizes the Armenian Genocide, it will affect the local Jewish community, according to Rabbi Shneur Segal, chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Azerbaijan.

“I am writing to you on behalf of the Jews of the city and the Jewish community, with a sincere request that you hear our voice and take it into consideration before advancing in the Knesset the recognition of what is referred to as the ‘Armenian Genocide,’” he wrote Monday in a letter to letter to Likud MK Ofir Katz, the coalition chairman.

On Sunday, the cabinet voted to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide.

The Jewish community forms an inseparable part of Azerbaijani society and, for generations, has enjoyed security, respect, and full religious freedom, Segal said.

“At a time when Jews in many countries around the world are afraid to walk openly with visible Jewish symbols, here we are able to walk through the streets of Baku wearing a kippah, safely and without fear,” he wrote. “This reality demonstrates more than anything the depth of friendship and respect that the Azerbaijani people have for the Jewish people.”

Furthermore, Azerbaijan’s Jewish community is deeply connected to Israel, where most of its members have relatives.

Segal said he had felt compelled to write to the Knesset because of this deep connection between the Azerbaijani Jewish community and Israel.

Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute spans decades

The dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan is one of the longest-running conflicts in the post-Soviet world. The two countries have spent nearly 35 years fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory but historically inhabited mainly by Armenians.

What is known as the Armenian Genocide was the systematic persecution, deportation, and mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, beginning in 1915. Most scholars estimate the death toll was anywhere from one million to 1.5 million Armenians.

Azerbaijan’s antipathy toward the recognition of this genocide stems more from modern geopolitical loyalty and regional alliances and less from historical debate.

Turkey, which is Azerbaijan’s strongest military and diplomatic ally, rejects the characterization of the 1915 events as genocide, and Azerbaijan does not wish to directly contradict Ankara’s official historical position.

Armenia is also viewed by many Azerbaijanis as the cause of much of their national trauma, especially due to the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. They therefore may view recognition as politically benefiting their adversary while harming a key ally.

Armenian Genocide is ‘sensitive’ to Azerbaijani people, rabbi says

Armenian Genocide is a sensitive issue for Azerbaijani, Segal said.

“We do not seek to decide historical disputes, nor do we enter into questions that are left to the research of historians,” he wrote. “However, we know very well how sensitive this issue is for the Azerbaijani people, and how much the decision taken in Israel has hurt people who see themselves as true friends of Israel and of the Jewish people.”

Segal said he did not doubt that relations between Israel and Azerbaijan were strong and stable, but he could nevertheless see the pain caused.

“Many members of the Jewish community living here also feel discomfort regarding this decision,” he wrote. “We ask you, as members of the Knesset and as leaders of the public in Israel, to also listen to the voice of the Jewish community in Azerbaijan, and to do everything in your power not to advance recognition of this decision in the Knesset.”

“We believe that listening to our voice will be an _expression_ of responsibility, sensitivity, gratitude, and commitment to continuing to strengthen the deep friendship between Israel and the Republic of Azerbaijan,” Segal wrote.

Montréal (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Israeli government recognized the deaths of one and a half million Armenians during World War I as genocide for political reasons, and Armenia is not even the intended addressee here. Prime Minister Pashinyan quite rightly noted that his country is not interested in turning the recognition of the Armenian genocide into an instrument of political struggle. The main addressee here is not even Turkey, but the United States. 

At the political level, relations between Turkey and Israel are extremely tense. Diplomatic missions in both countries have been reduced to a minimum. Turkey sharply condemns Israel’s policies in Gaza, the West Bank, as well as the attack on Iran and the killing of its leaders. Like many countries around the world, as well as international human rights organizations, Turkey regards the mass killings of the local population as genocide, the aim of which is to “cleanse” the entire territory under Israeli control of any Palestinian presence. As is well known, the drive to expand “living space” and purge “undesirable population” has already led to genocide several times in the last century. 

Turkey reacted predictably and condemned the decision of the Israeli cabinet. However, the transfer of oil from Azerbaijan to Israeli tankers at the Turkish port of Ceyhan continues, meeting a significant portion of the energy needs of the Zionist state. Moreover, Azerbaijan, while joining Turkey’s condemnation of Israel’s decision, has not halted these shipments either. Israeli special forces, intelligence, and other branches of the Israeli armed forces continue to operate against Iran from Azerbaijani territory. Finally, Israel supplied Azerbaijan with weapons that were used in the war against Armenians and the conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh. One should not attach too much significance to the angry statements coming out of Ankara and Baku. 

However, one should heed the opinion that has taken root in Israel that Turkey is the next adversary after Iran. Israel is doing everything it can to prevent the production of American F-35 stealth fighter jets in Turkey. Trump, who has increasingly expressed irritation with and even condemnation of Israel, has promised to bring a certain gift for the host of the NATO summit in July in Ankara. Many believe this concerns the resumption of Turkey’s participation in the production of the F-35. 

Thanks to still-reliable U.S. assistance, Israel possesses qualitative military superiority in the region. The appearance of the F-35 in Turkey (as well as in Saudi Arabia) could reduce or even abolish this advantage. The agreement on joint arms production among Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia should further this trend as well. 

All of this is extremely troubling for Israel, especially against the backdrop of the U.S. vice president’s recent remark addressing Israel: “you can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem”. Condemnation of Israel in the United States is steadily growing, which over time could result in reduced military aid. It is telling that Netanyahu promises to turn Israel into a “super-Sparta,” capable of confronting all the countries in the region even without American help. 

Armenians escaping from starvation and approaching the British front lines during the Armenian Genocide.
Date: 1 January 2014. This photograph Q 24744 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia Commons .

It is precisely political considerations—mobilizing the Armenian lobby in the U.S. Congress to fight against the strengthening of military-industrial cooperation with Turkey—that explain Israel’s decision to recognize the Armenian genocide. Israel is ready to grasp at any straw, as it finds itself in a difficult situation after having drawn the United States into a hopeless war against Iran. Morality and historical truth, clearly, have nothing to do with it. 

The recognition of mass murder as genocide is becoming a tool of foreign policy, supposedly granting moral superiority to the heirs of the victims. The glorification of collaborators in Ukraine provokes outrage not only in Russia but also in Poland and Israel. Former colonies in Africa are demanding compensation from former metropoles in Europe for centuries of enslavement, exploitation, and mass killings. History simply cannot remain in the past. 

If Israel is finally prepared to recognise the Armenian genocide, it should also acknowledge its own decades-long role in denying it.

On April 24, 1915, the rulers of the crumbling Ottoman Empire launched the destruction of the Armenian people. In less than four years, more than one million Armenians were murdered, while the survivors were scattered across the globe. Men, women, and children were forced onto death marches, imprisoned in concentration camps, raped, and killed. The late professor Yehuda Bauer, one of the world’s foremost Holocaust historians, argued that despite important differences between the two events, the Armenian genocide is history’s closest parallel to the Holocaust.

For decades, Israeli Foreign Ministry denied the genocide

On June 25, 2026, in a surprise announcement, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar declared in a post on X that he would ask the government to formally recognise the Armenian genocide at its next meeting.

The proposed resolution, which the Israeli government approved on June 28, will now be brought to a vote in the Knesset. It states that “despite extensive and unequivocal historical documentation, the Armenian genocide remains the target of an organised campaign of denial and minimisation, including the manipulative rewriting of history books, primarily by the Turkish government.” It therefore argues that “in light of the moral and historical obligation, the Government of Israel should recognise the genocide committed against the Armenian people in the final years of the Ottoman Empire,” and calls on Israel to condemn “any attempt to deny, minimise, or distort the historical truth of these events.”

Yet for decades, it was Israel’s own Foreign Ministry that denied those events constituted genocide. It established Israel’s official position that the Armenian people had suffered a “tragedy,” but not a genocide. Consistent with that policy, the ministry blocked repeated efforts in the Knesset – led primarily by the left-wing Meretz party – to secure official recognition.

The ministry’s refusal reflected geopolitical priorities. During the 20th century, it was driven by concern for relations with Turkey. In the 21st century, Azerbaijan – locked in conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh – became an additional consideration. The Foreign Ministry reaffirmed that position before Israel’s Supreme Court in February 2020 during freedom of information litigation that I pursued with genocide scholar professor Yair Auron.

For Israel, the issue centered on strategic, political, and security partnerships with two Muslim-majority states, both of which have purchased billions of dollars’ worth of Israeli weapons. Even after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came to power and relations with Turkey deteriorated, Israel chose not to burn its remaining bridges, hoping instead that Turkey’s leadership would eventually change.

Israeli foreign minister’s refusal to describe the events as genocide

Until last week, Minister Sa’ar himself rejected describing the events as genocide. When I asked him about his position in April 2025, he replied: “The Foreign Ministry’s position has not changed. Israel has never denied the tragedy and the suffering of the Armenian people during World War I.” In other words, he continued to define the events only as a “tragedy.”

Minister Sa’ar’s reversal appears driven less by a reassessment of history than by political necessity. With uncertainty over whether prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will honour promises to place him near the top of the Likud list in the next election, Sa’ar, like other potential primary contenders, appears eager to thrust himself into the public spotlight by provoking a direct confrontation with president Erdoğan.

But the minister’s political manoeuvring is matched by something equally troubling: the role of the Foreign Ministry officials who drafted the proposed resolution.

For decades, the ministry did not merely deny that the Armenian genocide was a genocide. It actively participated in a global campaign of denial, institutional minimisation, and historical revisionism. That record is documented in diplomatic cables released by the Israel State Archives.

Among them are cables from the early 1970s showing senior Foreign Ministry officials working to derail film adaptations of Franz Werfel’s novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, which chronicles the Armenian genocide, particularly a production starring the Jewish actor and Oscar nominee Chaim Topol.

Cables from the 1980s reveal that the ministry also sought to prevent Jewish communities – especially in the United States, France, and Argentina – from developing ties with Armenian communities or participating in Armenian genocide commemorations. On July 8, 1987, the head of the ministry’s Diaspora Affairs Department wrote: “Israel has no interest in appearing publicly as an opponent of Armenian activity. But in principle we do have an interest in preventing the proliferation of ‘Holocausts,’ which would only blur the uniqueness of the great Jewish Holocaust… There is also the matter of Turkish sensitivities and their expectation that we assist them against the Armenians… It seems to me there is neither historical nor moral justification for Jews to initiate or actively support the Armenian Holocaust. Accordingly, we agree that every effort should be made, with the utmost discretion, to prevent conscious Jewish mobilisation on behalf of the Armenian Holocaust, including the establishment of memorials and similar initiatives.”

How Israel worked to keep the Armenian genocide out of museums

The ministry also worked to keep the Armenian genocide out of museums. Israeli officials, for example, pressured planners of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles to exclude the subject from exhibits and memorials.

A series of diplomatic cables documents an intense campaign targeting the US Holocaust Memorial Museum while it was still being planned. In a cable dated March 4, 1988, Foreign Ministry deputy director General Yitzhak Lior wrote: “Our examination, following the Turkish approach to us, found that Armenian groups in the United States have indeed hitched a ride on the Holocaust Museum. Through this ideal way, they are inserting their cause directly into the heart of Washington’s National Mall.”

Lior described the pressure campaign against museum officials: “We exerted heavy pressure on our interlocutors. We argued that the Holocaust Museum would become the only controversial site on the Mall. It would become a focal point of dispute rather than a universally Jewish asset. The Turks would never accept it. Turkish Jewry would protest that their American brethren had equated the country that treated them well with the Nazis. It is unclear what interest we have in opening such a Pandora’s box. What do we have to do with the Turkish-Armenian conflict? By what right do we dilute the Holocaust with other historical controversies? Why should we serve as a substitute for an Armenian museum if they wish to establish one?… We have created an opposition bloc within the board that will now fight for a ‘clean museum.’ At its head is ADL Chairman Abe Foxman, who intends to inform the management officially that if the Armenian issue is included, he will resign and publicly explain why. This information must remain absolutely confidential.”

As a compromise, Lior proposed that “the Armenian issue be mentioned only in one of the temporary exhibitions, so that once it closes, the museum itself will remain clean.”

The released cables also show that the Foreign Ministry actively sought to derail parliamentary votes recognising the Armenian genocide around the world.

On Aug. 7, 1987, Israel’s deputy ambassador in Washington, Oded Eran, reported that a proposal to establish an Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day had been defeated in Congress. Two days later, Lior asked him to recommend “the areas in which, despite the extreme caution you exercised, we might take credit.” Eran replied: “I suggest we avoid specifics so as not to face pressure in the future. Some of those involved also do not wish to be identified.”

In another cable dated August 11, 1987, Israel’s mission in Ankara reported that “the Turkish press continued to cover the defeat of the Armenian proposal while mentioning the role played by the Jews in bringing it about.”

That same day, the head of the mission, Yehuda Millo, reported that a senior member of Turkey’s Jewish community had called “to thank us for our assistance and swift intervention. He said he made sure people here knew about it.” Two days later, Millo wrote that a senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official “thanked us for our assistance in Washington. I elaborated and stressed that what had been done involved considerable difficulties… She responded that they understood and appreciated it.”

Why the resolution is misleading and false

When the European Parliament recognised the Armenian genocide on June 18, 1987, Millo reported telling a senior Turkish official that “our intervention on your behalf… was exceptional both in our willingness to act and in the risks we assumed given the controversy surrounding the issue in Israel and throughout the Jewish world.” The Turkish official thanked Israel, saying that “a considerable number of members of parliament, both Jewish and non-Jewish, had changed their votes following our efforts and theirs.”

In a separate memorandum, Millo concluded: “We made major efforts on their behalf. In the final stages, we took actions that involved significant exposure. We did not encounter any other actor operating on their behalf… We made an extraordinary and exceptional policy decision… Fortunately, the matter has not become public thus far.”

Not everyone involved was comfortable with the campaign. In a cable dated Aug. 12, 1987, Israel’s deputy ambassador in Washington, Oded Eran, wrote: “I suddenly found myself with a very uncomfortable feeling – working against an attempt to establish a remembrance day for the genocide of the Armenian people, whatever the circumstances. It is not fitting for a representative of the Jewish state to be engaged in this.”

That is why the resolution drafted by minister Sa’ar and the Foreign Ministry is misleading – and, indeed, false. If Israel is finally prepared to recognise the Armenian genocide, it should also acknowledge its own decades-long role in denying it. It should apologise to the Armenian people and publicly confront its own efforts to deny, minimise, and distort the historical record.