Israel’s participation in the annual event held in Armenia in memorial of the genocide is likely to upset Ankara.
At a time when Turkey announced it would maintain ties with Israel and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu would visit Tel Aviv next month, a member of the Knesset from the governmental coalition decided to participate in the annual event held in Armenia in memorial of the genocide.
Israel’s participation in the Armenian event, its first in seven years, was officially approved by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Armenia accuses Turkey of committing genocide against the Armenians between 1915-and 1918; the genocide killed around two million people.
Turkey, however, denies and considers Armenia to be exaggerating and deforming the truth.
Israel abstains from endorsing the stances of the West in this regard and turns down all the pressures exerted to make it change its stance.
Yet, left-wing and right-wing parties in Israel show solidarity with Armenia. They even suggest a draft that reinforces solidarity with Armenians and say that “Jews who suffered from a genocide should stand by the Armenians.”
Member of the Knesset for Meretz, Mossi Raz is visiting Armenia to attend the occasion on Saturday.
He stated that he and his party agrees that the official Israeli stance should change and demand recognition of the Armenian genocide.
The political ties between Israel and Turkey have been in an ongoing crisis since 2008 on the backdrop of the Israeli policy towards Palestinians. The crisis aggravated in 2010 when the Israeli forces intercepted six Turkish ships that participated in the flotilla to break Israel's siege on Gaza.
The Turkish FM is expected to arrive in Israel next month in an attempt to reinforce and restore ties with Israel.
