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Knesset Speaker Working To Boost Recognition Of Armenian Genocide

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  • Knesset Speaker Working To Boost Recognition Of Armenian Genocide

    KNESSET SPEAKER WORKING TO BOOST RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

    armradio.am
    31.10.2011 19:45

    Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Monday that he wanted to convene an
    annual parliamentary session of the full Knesset to mark the Armenian
    genocide of 1915 and 1916 at the hands of the Turks. It is my duty
    as a Jew and Israeli to recognize the tragedies of other peoples,
    Rivlin said, speaking to an Israel-based Armenian action committee.

    Rivlin added: Diplomatic considerations, important as they may be,
    do not allow us to deny the disaster experienced by another people,
    Haaretz reports.

    In recent years the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry
    have applied heavy pressure to head off such sessions of the Knesset
    out of concern that relations between Israel and Turkey would be
    harmed. Turkey denies that it committed genocide against the Armenians.

    Since 2008, the full Knesset has allowed the Foreign Affairs and
    Defense Committee to hold sessions that have been closed to the
    media about the Armenian genocide. Last week, for the first time,
    the full Knesset approved the convening of an open, public session
    on the issue by the Education, Culture and Sports Committee, at the
    request of Meretz Knesset member Zahava Gal-On. This represents a
    complete change in approach on the issue.

    As part of the Foreign Ministry's attempt in recent years to block
    pro-Armenian genocide commemorations, in 2007, ministry staff expressed
    what was called dissatisfaction with plans to hold a session in the
    Knesset plenum on the issue. The prime minister at the time, Ehud
    Olmert, intervened to have the session canceled.

    In October of 2008, in an unprecedented move, the Knesset voted to
    have a parliamentary committee convene on the Armenian genocide at
    the initiative of then-Meretz chairman Haim Oron, paving the way for
    the sessions in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Over the
    past two years, however, after relations between Israel and Turkey
    deteriorated, the Foreign Ministry s opposition to the issue abated,
    though Rivlin s latest move was at his own initiative.

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