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ISRAEL: DISCUSSING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem
Los Angeles Times
April 15 2008
CA
A week before Israelis and Jews will mark Holocaust Remembrance Day
early May, Armenians throughout the world will be commemorating their
own tragedy.
Armenians say 1.5 million people, one third of the ethnic nation, were
massacred by the Turks in 1915-1916. Turkey maintains that between
250,000 and 500,000 Armenians were killed during the minority's
struggle for independence, and a similar number of Turks.
The Armenians are relentless in their push for recognition of the
killings as genocide, while an uncomfortable Turkey counters these
efforts with international pressure.
In this bitter dispute, Israel finds itself in both a moral and
diplomatic hard spot.
For the first time, the Israeli parliament is going to discuss the
matter. Knesset member Haim Oron raised the issue, reminding that in
recent years the U.S. Congress and French parliament have passed laws
recognizing the Armenian genocide. "It is impossible that the Jewish
nation will not speak up," he said.
Turkey and Israel are more than geographically close. The two
countries share various strategic interests and the thought of a
public discussion of the sensitive issue makes both sides nervous.
One possibility is that the issue be discussed in the Knesset's foreign
affairs and defense committee, whose sessions are closed to the press.
"The Armenian issue is very sensitive for Turkey," Hasan Murat Mercan,
chairman of the Turkish Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, told
Jerusalem officials during a visit last week. "We would prefer if
this discussion didn't take place at this time ...
because it may harm relations between the two countries." A senior
aide to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert replied that Israel believes the
issue needs to be settled between the two sides with the involvement of
historians, and has no interest in undermining its important strategic
relations with Turkey.
Aside from "not denying the occurrence of the terrible events" and
expressing understanding of the deep sensitivity, Israel has long
avoided a clear public position. Attempts to include the topic in
the school syllabus nearly a decade ago failed, authorities being
reluctant to anger Turkey and concerned it would detract from the
importance of the Holocaust.
In 2003, an Israeli nurse of Armenian descent was chosen as one of
the traditional 12 torch-lighters in the yearly memorial ceremony
preceding Independence Day. The text she wrote for the government
brochure had described her as a "third generation to survivors of the
Armenian holocaust in 1915." But protest from the Turkish embassy
led the reprinting of 2000 new brochures, stating instead that she
was the daughter of the long-suffering Armenian people and that her
grandparents were "survivors of historic Armenia."
Reuven Rivlin, a veteran legislator who was Knesset speaker at that
time, wrote last week that Israel is obliged to recognize the Armenian
genocide: "We cannot, in the name of political or diplomatic wisdom,
suppress such fundamental human values, which touch on the roots of
our tragic existence."
Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem
Los Angeles Times
April 15 2008
CA
A week before Israelis and Jews will mark Holocaust Remembrance Day
early May, Armenians throughout the world will be commemorating their
own tragedy.
Armenians say 1.5 million people, one third of the ethnic nation, were
massacred by the Turks in 1915-1916. Turkey maintains that between
250,000 and 500,000 Armenians were killed during the minority's
struggle for independence, and a similar number of Turks.
The Armenians are relentless in their push for recognition of the
killings as genocide, while an uncomfortable Turkey counters these
efforts with international pressure.
In this bitter dispute, Israel finds itself in both a moral and
diplomatic hard spot.
For the first time, the Israeli parliament is going to discuss the
matter. Knesset member Haim Oron raised the issue, reminding that in
recent years the U.S. Congress and French parliament have passed laws
recognizing the Armenian genocide. "It is impossible that the Jewish
nation will not speak up," he said.
Turkey and Israel are more than geographically close. The two
countries share various strategic interests and the thought of a
public discussion of the sensitive issue makes both sides nervous.
One possibility is that the issue be discussed in the Knesset's foreign
affairs and defense committee, whose sessions are closed to the press.
"The Armenian issue is very sensitive for Turkey," Hasan Murat Mercan,
chairman of the Turkish Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, told
Jerusalem officials during a visit last week. "We would prefer if
this discussion didn't take place at this time ...
because it may harm relations between the two countries." A senior
aide to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert replied that Israel believes the
issue needs to be settled between the two sides with the involvement of
historians, and has no interest in undermining its important strategic
relations with Turkey.
Aside from "not denying the occurrence of the terrible events" and
expressing understanding of the deep sensitivity, Israel has long
avoided a clear public position. Attempts to include the topic in
the school syllabus nearly a decade ago failed, authorities being
reluctant to anger Turkey and concerned it would detract from the
importance of the Holocaust.
In 2003, an Israeli nurse of Armenian descent was chosen as one of
the traditional 12 torch-lighters in the yearly memorial ceremony
preceding Independence Day. The text she wrote for the government
brochure had described her as a "third generation to survivors of the
Armenian holocaust in 1915." But protest from the Turkish embassy
led the reprinting of 2000 new brochures, stating instead that she
was the daughter of the long-suffering Armenian people and that her
grandparents were "survivors of historic Armenia."
Reuven Rivlin, a veteran legislator who was Knesset speaker at that
time, wrote last week that Israel is obliged to recognize the Armenian
genocide: "We cannot, in the name of political or diplomatic wisdom,
suppress such fundamental human values, which touch on the roots of
our tragic existence."