The Geopolitical Implications of Israel’s Parliamentary Decision to Recognize the Armenian Genocide in Context of Evolving International Relations
The Geopolitical Implications of Israel’s Parliamentary Decision to Recognize the Armenian Genocide in Context of Evolving International Relations
The breakdown in Israeli relations with Turkey did not eliminate Jerusalem’s obstacle to recognizing the Armenian genocide; that hesitation has merely been shifted to Azerbaijan. How the geopolitical tide can turn in thirty years! If 1996 was the high-water mark of Turkish-Israeli relations, 2026 is their lowest ebb: from a free-trade agreement to a trade embargo; from an Israeli tourism boom to virtually none; from close military cooperation under their landmark MOU to Erdogan’s threats of military confrontation; and from a strategic partnership against Syria, which harbored Hamas in the 1990s, to Syria’s junior partnership with Turkey, which harbors Hamas today.
Nothing dramatizes this reversal as clearly as the Israeli cabinet’s decision on June 28 to recognize the Armenian genocide. Since the late 1970s, Turkish sensitivities—and, at times, explicit threats—had kept Israel treading carefully around the genocide question and avoiding any misstep that could offend Ankara. But with little Turkish goodwill left to lose, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, already a supporter of recognition, saw opportunity in crisis and took his proposal for recognition to the cabinet.
For the first time in Israeli history, a government recognized the Armenian genocide—and unanimously. The cabinet’s decision revealed a stratum even beneath the presumed rock bottom of Turkish-Israeli relations. Sa’ar’s Turkish counterpart denounced Israel as a “burden that humanity can no longer bear.” But Turkey was not the only country unhappy with the decision. Armenia was unimpressed, the United States was annoyed, and Azerbaijan was aggrieved. The backlash, from Azerbaijan in particular, gave the Israeli government second thoughts. Instead of proceeding with the expected Knesset resolution that would have made recognition the official position of the Israeli legislature, Jerusalem shelved it, leaving the cabinet measure a half-measure.
???? The news was transferred and summarized by Editor-in-Chief AboMatrix