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ISRAELI LAWMAKERS DEBATE DAY MARKING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Izzy Lemberg
CNN
December 26, 2011
Jerusalem (CNN) -- In a move that could further erode already soured
relations with Turkey, Israeli lawmakers on Monday debated whether to
establish an official day marking the hotly debated Armenian genocide.
Armenian groups and many scholars argue that 96 years ago, starting
in 1915, Turks committed genocide, when more than a million ethnic
Armenians were massacred in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.
Modern day Turkey which emerged after the collapse the Ottoman
Empire, has always denied a genocide took place arguing instead that
hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians and Muslim Turks died in
intercommunal violence around the bloody battlefields of World War 1.
The Knesset committee debate, which had been scheduled for months,
was made up of an ideological cross section of political parties and
allied some right and left-wing legislators in support of creating
an Armenian memorial day.
Zehava Gal-On of the left wing Meretz party declared, "It is a moral
question of recognizing the Armenian genocide, and it should not be
based on political considerations."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said "an open debate
on the issue based on facts and figures was welcome" but stressed that
the sensitive topic should not be used to make political statements
or be divorced from the current geo-political context.
Last week the French National assembly passed a law making denial of
the Armenian genocide a crime. Turkey reacted furiously, recalling
its ambassador from Paris, denying landing rights to French military
aircraft and forbidding the docking of French ships in Turkish ports.
The issue of the Armenian genocide has posed a diplomatic and moral
dilemma for Israel which sees itself as the keeper of the memory of the
Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were the victims of a mass genocide. It
has had to weigh this obligation with the more practical political
consideration of maintaining stable economic and security relations
with Turkey.
But as relations between the two countries have deteriorated over
the last three years, there have been increased calls from some in
the Israeli political establishment for the government to take a more
aggressive stance on the Armenian issue.
"In the past we were always told that we cannot discuss this subject
because of our good relationship with Turkey; now we are told that
we cannot discuss this because of our bad relationship with Turkey,"
said Aryeh Eldad of the right wing National Union party.
Turkish-Israeli relations have been on the rocks since 2009, when, in
response to repeated rocket fire, Israel launched a military offensive
against militant Islamist political party Hamas which controls Gaza.
Ties between the one-time allies deteriorated further in 2010 after
Israeli commandos seized a Turkish ship carrying pro-Palestinian
activists and humanitarian supplies. The ship was part of a flotilla
seeking to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. During the
seizure nine Turkish nationals were killed by the Israeli commandos.
Members of the committee came under pressure from the Foreign Ministry
as well as the Prime Minister's Office not to have a vote at this
time, according to some Knesset members. It appears the requests
were heeded as the meeting broke up without a vote or a date for
further discussions.
From: Baghdasarian
By Izzy Lemberg
CNN
December 26, 2011
Jerusalem (CNN) -- In a move that could further erode already soured
relations with Turkey, Israeli lawmakers on Monday debated whether to
establish an official day marking the hotly debated Armenian genocide.
Armenian groups and many scholars argue that 96 years ago, starting
in 1915, Turks committed genocide, when more than a million ethnic
Armenians were massacred in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.
Modern day Turkey which emerged after the collapse the Ottoman
Empire, has always denied a genocide took place arguing instead that
hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians and Muslim Turks died in
intercommunal violence around the bloody battlefields of World War 1.
The Knesset committee debate, which had been scheduled for months,
was made up of an ideological cross section of political parties and
allied some right and left-wing legislators in support of creating
an Armenian memorial day.
Zehava Gal-On of the left wing Meretz party declared, "It is a moral
question of recognizing the Armenian genocide, and it should not be
based on political considerations."
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said "an open debate
on the issue based on facts and figures was welcome" but stressed that
the sensitive topic should not be used to make political statements
or be divorced from the current geo-political context.
Last week the French National assembly passed a law making denial of
the Armenian genocide a crime. Turkey reacted furiously, recalling
its ambassador from Paris, denying landing rights to French military
aircraft and forbidding the docking of French ships in Turkish ports.
The issue of the Armenian genocide has posed a diplomatic and moral
dilemma for Israel which sees itself as the keeper of the memory of the
Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were the victims of a mass genocide. It
has had to weigh this obligation with the more practical political
consideration of maintaining stable economic and security relations
with Turkey.
But as relations between the two countries have deteriorated over
the last three years, there have been increased calls from some in
the Israeli political establishment for the government to take a more
aggressive stance on the Armenian issue.
"In the past we were always told that we cannot discuss this subject
because of our good relationship with Turkey; now we are told that
we cannot discuss this because of our bad relationship with Turkey,"
said Aryeh Eldad of the right wing National Union party.
Turkish-Israeli relations have been on the rocks since 2009, when, in
response to repeated rocket fire, Israel launched a military offensive
against militant Islamist political party Hamas which controls Gaza.
Ties between the one-time allies deteriorated further in 2010 after
Israeli commandos seized a Turkish ship carrying pro-Palestinian
activists and humanitarian supplies. The ship was part of a flotilla
seeking to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. During the
seizure nine Turkish nationals were killed by the Israeli commandos.
Members of the committee came under pressure from the Foreign Ministry
as well as the Prime Minister's Office not to have a vote at this
time, according to some Knesset members. It appears the requests
were heeded as the meeting broke up without a vote or a date for
further discussions.
From: Baghdasarian