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ISRAEL LAWMAKERS NOTE ARMENIA MASS KILLINGS
by: Steve Weizman
European Jewish Press
http://www.ejpress.org/article/59027
June 13 2012
JERUSALEM (AFP)---Israel's parliament on Tuesday held a discussion
marking the Turkish mass killings of Armenians, in a move likely to
further strain already tense relations with Ankara.
"It is our moral obligation to remember and remind others of the
tragedy that befell the Armenian people, which lost over a million
of its sons during the First World War," speaker Reuven Rivlin told
lawmakers.
Tuesday's discussion was the third consecutive year in which the
Knesset has held such a hearing to note "the anniversary of the killing
of the Armenian people," as requested by seven MPs from various ranks.
Parliament rejected in 2007 a motion to recognise the Turkish mass
killings of Armenians beginning in 1915 as a "genocide."
Rivlin opened the plenary discussion by saying Jews in Ottoman-ruled
Palestine in 1915 had been only too aware of what was happening to
the Armenians.
"Residents of Jerusalem saw them arriving in their thousands,
starving," he said. "Testimonies of a massacre were clear and sharp."
He said the Armenian killings were noted by the later architects of
the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews.
"We were next in line," Rivlin said. "Those who conceived the Final
Solution regarding the Jews got the impression that when the time
came the world would be silent, as it was silent during the murder
of the Armenians."
But he said recognising the tragedy was not meant as casting blame
on modern Turkey "or against the present Turkish government."
"Perhaps the government of Israel will at last recognise -- like
27 other countries around the world -- the massacre of the Armenian
people," said Zehava Galon of the opposition Meretz party.
Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, who represented the government during
the discussion, said the Knesset should seriously debate the issue,
and recognise it as genocide if it reaches that conclusion.
"The whole discussion is taking place on the background of relations
with Turkey," he said. "As Jews and Israelis, we should have a special
obligation to learn about human tragedies."
In December, a parliamentary committee held a landmark public debate
on recognising genocide in Armenia. Past hearings had taken place
behind closed doors.
Proposals by lawmakers to hold debates on the issue had been rejected
by Israeli governments over the years, when ties with Turkey were
warmer.
But relations plunged into deep crisis in 2010, 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.
Last year Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and axed military
ties and defence trade, while Israel cancelled completion of a contract
to sell Turkey aerial surveillance equipment.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey 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 Ottomans.
by: Steve Weizman
European Jewish Press
http://www.ejpress.org/article/59027
June 13 2012
JERUSALEM (AFP)---Israel's parliament on Tuesday held a discussion
marking the Turkish mass killings of Armenians, in a move likely to
further strain already tense relations with Ankara.
"It is our moral obligation to remember and remind others of the
tragedy that befell the Armenian people, which lost over a million
of its sons during the First World War," speaker Reuven Rivlin told
lawmakers.
Tuesday's discussion was the third consecutive year in which the
Knesset has held such a hearing to note "the anniversary of the killing
of the Armenian people," as requested by seven MPs from various ranks.
Parliament rejected in 2007 a motion to recognise the Turkish mass
killings of Armenians beginning in 1915 as a "genocide."
Rivlin opened the plenary discussion by saying Jews in Ottoman-ruled
Palestine in 1915 had been only too aware of what was happening to
the Armenians.
"Residents of Jerusalem saw them arriving in their thousands,
starving," he said. "Testimonies of a massacre were clear and sharp."
He said the Armenian killings were noted by the later architects of
the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews.
"We were next in line," Rivlin said. "Those who conceived the Final
Solution regarding the Jews got the impression that when the time
came the world would be silent, as it was silent during the murder
of the Armenians."
But he said recognising the tragedy was not meant as casting blame
on modern Turkey "or against the present Turkish government."
"Perhaps the government of Israel will at last recognise -- like
27 other countries around the world -- the massacre of the Armenian
people," said Zehava Galon of the opposition Meretz party.
Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, who represented the government during
the discussion, said the Knesset should seriously debate the issue,
and recognise it as genocide if it reaches that conclusion.
"The whole discussion is taking place on the background of relations
with Turkey," he said. "As Jews and Israelis, we should have a special
obligation to learn about human tragedies."
In December, a parliamentary committee held a landmark public debate
on recognising genocide in Armenia. Past hearings had taken place
behind closed doors.
Proposals by lawmakers to hold debates on the issue had been rejected
by Israeli governments over the years, when ties with Turkey were
warmer.
But relations plunged into deep crisis in 2010, 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.
Last year Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and axed military
ties and defence trade, while Israel cancelled completion of a contract
to sell Turkey aerial surveillance equipment.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey 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 Ottomans.