Israel Cabinet backs Armenian genocide recognition amid worsening Turkiye ties

01-Jul-2026

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Israel's Cabinet on June 28 unanimously approved a proposal to designate the violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide, a move that still requires approval in Parliament. The step comes as ties between Israel and Turkiye have worsened, with Ankara long opposing such recognition.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Scholars widely view the killings as the first genocide of the 20th century, while Turkiye rejects that description, saying the death toll has been inflated and that those who died were victims of civil war and unrest.

For years, Israel avoided formally taking up the issue out of concern that it could anger Turkiye. But relations between the two countries have deteriorated over the past two decades and have worsened further in recent years as the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have continued.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who brought the proposal to the government, said, "Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, the Armenian Genocide remains to this day the subject of an institutionalised campaign of denial and minimisation, including a manipulative rewriting of history, mainly by the Turkish government." Saar said Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had previously described the violence against Armenians as a genocide, but it had never been formally recognised in a vote by Israel's Knesset.

Saar added, "It is never too late to do the right thing," calling it a "moral and historical duty." He said 32 countries, including the United States, Syria and Lebanon, had also classified the violence as a genocide. It was not immediately known when the Cabinet's decision would be sent to Parliament, and there was no immediate reaction from Turkiye.