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ANKARA: Israel Gives No Decision On 'Armenian Killings'

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  • ANKARA: Israel Gives No Decision On 'Armenian Killings'

    ISRAEL GIVES NO DECISION ON 'ARMENIAN KILLINGS'

    Hurriyet Daily News
    Dec 26 2011
    Turkey

    Over their prime minister's objections, Israeli lawmakers yesterday
    began debating a proposal to recognize the "mass killings of Armenians
    by Ottoman Turks," with no final decision.

    The discussion was unusually held in the Knesset's education committee,
    described as the weakest committee in terms of its political weight. It
    can not make any political decisions. It can only give recommendations
    for educational issues or give advice on public debates.

    A similar proposal was rejected by parliament in 2007, when ties
    between Israel and Turkey were warm.

    But relations plunged into deep crisis last year when Israeli forces
    killed nine Turks in a raid on a Turkish ferry, part of an activist
    flotilla seeking to breach Israel's naval blockade of Gaza.

    "We've been working on this for many years," Georgette Avakian
    of the Armenian National Committee in Jerusalem had told Israeli
    public radio. "Hope the time has come." In October, Turkey expelled
    the Israeli ambassador and axed military ties and defence trade. Last
    week, Israel cancelled completion of a 2008 contract to sell Turkey
    aerial surveillance equipment.

    A parliamentary supporter of an Israeli memorial day for Armenian
    genocide claims - Zahava Gal-On of the left-wing Meretz party - said
    the changed diplomatic climate might mean that the measure gains
    support this time. "For many years, Israel's government has refused
    to recognise the genocide for cynical, strategic and economic reasons,
    connected to its ties with Turkey," she told the Haaretz daily.

    "Now, given the state of relations between the countries, I can't rule
    out the possibility that the foreign ministry is exploiting affairs."

    Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
    killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

    But the Turkish government strongly denies this, saying 300,000
    Armenians and as many Turks were killed in civil conflict when the
    Christian Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against the Ottoman
    Empire.

    France's lower house voted last week to criminalise the denial of
    genocide claims in Armenia, prompting Turkey to suspend political
    and military cooperation.

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