The Turkish Foreign Ministry has condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent recognition of the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire.
‘Netanyahu’s remarks about the events of 1915 is an attempt to exploit the tragedies in the past for political purposes’, the ministry wrote in a press release on Wednesday.
‘Currently on trial for his role in the genocide committed against the Palestinian people, Netanyahu is seeking to cover up the crimes perpetrated by himself and his government’.
‘We condemn and reject these remarks which are contrary to the historical and legal facts’, the press release concluded.
Netanyahu’s statement came earlier on Wednesday in an interview with the controversial US podcaster Patrick Bet-David, who is of Armenian and Assyrian descent.
During the interview, Bet-David said that if there was ‘any country that I would have expected to be on the list that recognised the Armenian, the Assyrian, and the Greek genocide it would be Israel’.
In response, Netanyahu falsely claimed that Israel’s Parliament ‘passed a resolution to that effect’.
When pressed by Bet-David on why no Israeli prime minister had recognised the genocide, Netanyahu responded saying: ‘I just did. Here you go’.
The recognition of the Armenian Genocide has remained a highly politicised issue for Israel, due to its complex relations with Turkey, which, as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies that the genocide took place. Others have argued that Israel’s recognition would diminish the status of the Holocaust as a historically unique genocide in terms of number of victims.
Netanyahu’s statement on Tuesday came amidst diplomatic tensions between Turkey and Israel over the war in Gaza.
Previously, in March 2024, Netanyahu warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the latter’s criticism of Israeli conduct in the war.
‘Israel, which adheres to the laws of war, will not accept moral sermons from Erdoğan, who supports the murderers and rapists of the Hamas terrorist organisation, denies the Armenian Genocide, massacres Kurds within his own country, and exiles dissidents and journalists’.
The massacres by the Ottoman Empire resulted in the deaths of nearly 1.5 million Armenians, approximately 750,000 Assyrians, and at least 1.1 million Greeks. Turkey, the empire’s successor state, has continuously denied the genocidal acts committed by the Ottomans.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
