Israel Recognizes Armenian Genocide, Amid Frosty Ties with Turkey
By NAVA FREIBERG
FM says unanimous government move is ‘moral imperative’ for Jewish state: ‘It’s never too late to do the right thing’; Ankara, which accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza, rejects label for WWI atrocities.
The government voted Sunday to recognize the Armenian genocide in a move that was sure to antagonize Turkey, which accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza but fiercely denies the charge applies to the Ottoman Empire’s wholesale killing of Armenians during World War I.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who had announced last week that he would bring the recognition to a cabinet vote on Sunday, wrote on X after the bill passed unanimously that “it’s never too late to do the right thing.”
“Israel joins 32 countries that have fulfilled a moral duty by recognizing the historical truth, and rejecting attempts to deny it,” Sa’ar wrote.
In a Hebrew-language video statement, he said: “This horrifying genocide, which took place over 100 years ago, and whose facts are not really up for debate, included the murder of 1.5 million people and the destruction of an ancient and historic cultural heritage.”
“In my view, it’s our moral imperative as Jews — and certainly as the state of the Jewish nation — to make the decision that we made today,” Sa’ar said.
In a bid to avoid tension with Turkey, Israel had long refrained from using the word “genocide” to refer to the campaign of massacres, imprisonment and forced deportation that the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s forerunner, committed against Armenians in the empire’s final years.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but contests the figures and has long denied that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.
Israel’s already strained ties with Turkey tanked after the Hamas terror group invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the war in Gaza. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who supports Hamas, has compared Israel’s actions to those of Nazi Germany, and all but cut his country’s once-robust trade ties with Israel. Israel fiercely denies the charge of genocide in Gaza.
Amid the rupture with Turkey, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said for the first time in August 2025 that he recognizes the Armenian genocide. Ankara accused him at the time of seeking “to exploit past tragedies for political motives.”
Asked at a press conference Saturday night if he supports the Armenian genocide recognition bill, Netanyahu said: “I certainly support it.”
Netanyahu, who is Israel’s longest-serving premier, said he had never tried to block recognition of the genocide, and declined to comment on whether there was concern about Turkey’s reaction to the move.
