{"id":184596,"date":"2026-06-30T14:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/184596\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:11:09","slug":"armenian-bishop-israel-fulfills-moral-duty-in-recognizing-armenian-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/184596\/","title":{"rendered":"Armenian bishop: Israel fulfills ‘moral duty’ in recognizing Armenian Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israeli government has \u201cfulfilled its moral duty\u201d in recognizing the Armenian Genocide, a move that is appreciated by the Armenian community both in Israel and abroad, Bishop Koryun Baghdasaryan<\/a> told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.<\/p>\n

Baghdasaryan is a senior leader and dean of the manor of Jerusalem\u2019s Armenian Patriarchate. His comments came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government voted on Sunday in favor of Israel\u2019s recognition<\/a> of the World War I-era killings of Armenians as a genocide.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Post, the bishop pointed to the recognition as the completion of an Israeli onus to do so due to the Jewish people\u2019s history of undergoing a genocide at the hands of Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot for the State of Israel, for the Jewish people,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause as a nation that went through the Holocaust, and right after the Holocaust established the State of Israel, it was really the moral duty for the State of Israel to recognize the Armenian Genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the government\u2019s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the proposal is set to go before the Knesset plenum for a vote. There, Baghdasaryan said he expects it will get overwhelming support.<\/p>\n

\"BishopBishop Koryun Baghdasaryan and Jerusalem Post senior field reporter Sam Halpern in the old city of Jerusalem. June 29, 2026. (credit: SAM HALPERN)Israel may become 32nd UN member to recognize the Armenian Genocide<\/p>\n

Should the Knesset<\/a> vote in favor of the proposal, Israel will become the 32nd UN member state to officially recognize the killings, which resulted in the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenians, as a genocide.<\/p>\n

The UN\u2019s Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide refers to \u201cgenocide\u201d as acts committed with \u201cintent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as such.\u201d<\/p>\n

The term itself was coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin as a way to describe such mass killings and was specifically influenced by the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me personally, as a grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors, it means a lot, because we, the Armenians, will always remember. Remember and demand,\u201d Baghdasaryan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remember that one and a half million Armenians were massacred during the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire, and we demand justice. We demand international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and, of course, we demand a condemnation of this horrible massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baghdasaryan went on to add that it was particularly important that Turkey, which he called the \u201clegal heir\u201d of the Ottoman Empire, which perpetrated the genocide, take responsibility for it in the same way that Germany recognizes and takes responsibility for the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important country or state that has to recognize the Armenian Genocide is Turkey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey not only does not recognize the Armenian Genocide but denies the Armenian Genocide. We hope that all the recognition of these influential countries, at the end of the day, will have a positive impact on Turkey to face its history.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, though, the bishop said that Armenians, in Armenia, Israel, or elsewhere, are pleased to hear that any country recognizes the genocide. Israel\u2019s recognition, in particular, he predicted, will have a \u201cunique role\u201d in advancing toward international recognition.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s recognition of the Armenian Genocide was not met with universal celebration. Azerbaijan, one of Israel\u2019s closest partners in the Muslim world, subsequently issued a statement decrying the move<\/a>, calling it \u201cunacceptable,\u201d a \u201cmatter of serious concern\u201d and a \u201cdistortion of the historical facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reaction of Azerbaijan was expected,\u201d Baghdasaryan said, calling the country a \u201clittle brother\u201d of Turkey and expressing his hope that it would not influence the Knesset against voting in favor of recognition of the Armenian Genocide.<\/p>\n

Senior Armenian bishop: We hope this recognition will contribute to bettering Israel-Armenia relations<\/p>\n

Asked if he believed that such recognition would form the basis for deepening relations between Israel and Armenia, the bishop said that good relations and cooperation were the \u201cexpectation\u201d in \u201call fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that this recognition will contribute positively to the betterment of these relations,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be for the benefit of both the Armenian nation and the Israeli nation, and also for the Armenian community in Israel and the Jewish community in Armenia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding Israel\u2019s responsibility in this relationship, he said that he would like to see education about the Armenian Genocide in the Israeli educational curriculum and added that he hoped the recognition would advance that goal.<\/p>\n

Already, though, Baghdasaryan said he has seen a strong reaction in celebration of the government\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got more than 100 messages, emails, WhatsApps,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone is congratulating and, of course, saying that they feel very upset that [the recognition] was very late but that they\u2019re very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli government has \u201cfulfilled its moral duty\u201d in recognizing the Armenian Genocide, a move that is appreciated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[3248,29502,288,41,16525,7889,37,1189,4028,29153,1176],"class_list":["post-184596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-armenia","tag-armenian-genocide","tag-azerbaijan","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-church","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-knesset","tag-old-city-jerusalem","tag-turkey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116839467309025080","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}