Jerusalem (dpa) – Israeli legislators met Monday to discuss whether they consider the World War I death of numerous Armenians by Turkish troops to be genocide, despite concerns that the debate would lead to a worsening of already dire ties with Ankara. Although the majority of legislators attending the debate in the Knesset (parliament) Education Committee called for Israel to recognize the Armenian genocide, no vote was held at the end of the discussion. However, the committee chairman promised to hold additional hearings on the issue. Ankara denies that Ottoman Turkey carried out genocide against the Armenians in World War I. Armenia has long lobbied for recognition that the Ottomans massacred 1.5 million people. France's National Assembly on Thursday approved a bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I. The vote sparked a diplomatic crisis between France and Turkey. Israeli Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin told Israel Army Radio that Monday's discussion was not political, or aimed at Turkey, whose prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a vocal and frequent critic of the Jewish state. “We have a moral obligation to remember and honour the tragedy which befell the Armenian people,” Rivlin said. However a Foreign Ministry official who attended the meeting read out a statement, which noted that, while Jews and Israels had “a special sensitivity and even an ethical obligation to recognize human tragedies, including the massacres against the Armenian population during World War I,” any formal recognition would “constitute taking sides along political lines.” Opposition legislator Othniel Schneller was more blunt, criticizing the parley as “irresponsible” and saying Israel had to do everything in its power to improve relations with Turkey. Relations between Israel and Turkey, once close allies, have been on a downward spiral for years, and reached their nadir in May 2010, when Israeli commandos, intercepting a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, killed nine people on board the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara. Earlier this year Turkey downgraded its ties with Jerusalem, after Israel refused to apologize for the flotilla incident. The downgrade, and Israel's refusal to apologize, came after a UN report found that Israel used “excessive and unreasonable force” in taking over the ships, albeit after facing “significant, organized and violent resistance” from passengers on board the Mavi Marmara. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/hcmvm Tags: Armenia, Armenian Genocide, Genocide, Israel Section: Human Rights, Palestine
