Armenia’s Foreign Minister, Israel’s Knesset Speaker Discuss Armenian Genocide Recognition  

JERUSALEM (A.W.)—Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister Edward Nalbandian met with Speaker of the Israeli Knesset (National Legislature) Yuli Edelstein on Monday, during Nalbandian’s official visit to Israel. At the meeting, the two exchanged views on a number of urgent regional issues, including the importance of the Israeli Parliament’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister Edward Nalbandian met with Speaker of the Israeli Knesset Yuli Edelstein on Monday (Photo: Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry)

During the talks, Edelstein noted that his point of view about the importance of recognition is “well-known” and that he has expressed it many times publically.

In July 2015, during a committee meeting, Edelstein had said the Knesset “must do the moral thing” and recognize the Armenian genocide.

“I visited one of the Armenian memorial sites and it is very hard to ignore what I saw there,” Edelstein had recounted at the time, according to the Jerusalem Post. “I expect that I and the Knesset behave appropriately so that we can make decisions according to the moral standards of a democratic state.”

A scene from the bilateral meeting (Photo: Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry)

Welcoming the Foreign Minister of Armenia on Monday, the Knesset leader emphasized that the Israeli Parliament is ready to extend full support to a “comprehensive development of relations” with Armenia.

According to the Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Nalbandian and Edelstein also discussed a number of issues on the Armenian-Israeli relations agenda, particularly about deepening and expanding inter-parliamentary relations, and cooperation within international organizations.

Earlier on Nov. 6, Nalbandian visited the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, where he met with Patriarch Archbishop Nourhan Manougian. Nalbandian briefed the patriarch on the objectives of his visit and the results of his meetings. During their meeting, the two also discussed issues of cooperation between the three custodian churches of the Holy Sepulchre Church.

The three primary guardians of the church, first appointed when Crusaders held Jerusalem, are the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic, and the Roman Catholic churches. The Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Syriac Orthodox churches also share jurisdiction. Over the years, there have been many disputes between the churches on issues of jurisdiction and cooperation.

According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the two also touched on “pan-Armenian” issues.

8 Comments

  1. ISRAEL doesn’t do anything “just because” or “out of good will”. Their desire to open relations with Armenia, after 25 years of independence, is calculated and a testament to Armenia’s importance. So that’s a good sign and warranted and politically necessary. However also understand that these same actors were and are the same ones that basically concocted the destruction of the Christian Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians and its eventual cover up and denial and will never ever TRULY be Armenia’s friend. They cant be. The Armenian Nations future lies in our collective UNITY of one Armenia, Artsakh and Diaspora. That’s the core lesson of the Armenian Genocide itself. All else are traitors. That simple.

    • There is zero connection between the extreme nationalists who came to dominate the CUP and orchestrated the Genocide and Zionism. If you want to spread blame for the Genocide, there’s plenty who can be blamed. Blame the British government’s Russophobia, which caused them to turn a blind eye to the persecution and massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Blame France, which discouraged Russia from invading, fearing that an invasion would lead to a breakup of the Ottoman Empire and prevent the debts (France owned the largest portion of Ottoman Empire debt) from being repaid. Blame the outbreak of World War I (which had complex causes, none of which related to Zionism), which prevented the international observers that the CUP had finally agreed to, from being able to enter, and provided cover for the Genocide. But blaming Zionism shows merely your ignorance, antisemitism, and perhaps worst of all, your intellectual laziness.

  2. In this regard, I am actually disappointed with Armenia and its timid attitude with a Genocide denying nation as Israel. Armenia does not yet have the diplomatic capacity to challenge the likes of the USA and UK, but Israel’s stance is downright shameful. A nation which should have been the first to recognize the Genocide, given their religion-like fanaticism in selling the Holocaust story around the world and brazenly telling everyone “you are either with us or against us”, including the requirement that whatever they state must be accepted as fact even without proof, and even with proof to the contrary when shown to certain claims. Their tactic is to present us with Genocide accepting Israelis who have no real influence or power, while their real leadership practice denial, hand in hand with Turks and Azeris. And we gullible Armenians fall for this nonsense every single time. Their president even shamelessly and belligerently started talking about “genocide” and “khojaly” in the same speech at the UN not long ago. Given Israel’s two-faced phony nature, my suggestion is to limit relations with them to a bare minimum until Israel recognizes and accepts the Armenian Genocide without any “discussion”. In fact, make sure to get closer to Iran and develop security pacts and stick that in their face. That is the tip of the iceberg of what they would have done to us if things were reversed.

  3. Remember they have arm deals with turkey and azerbaijan – there is money involved. Lets be realistic. The knesset has and have had these discussions before and it has been knocked back and we all know why. Pity.

  4. Did they also discuss Israel’s unconditional support for Azerbaijan in the Artsakh conflict? That is a far bigger priority for Armenia than recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

  5. The Speaker of the Knesset is an interesting man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuli-Yoel_Edelstein
    We must remember, though, that in the April 2016 war, an Israeli-built Harpy kamikaze drone, possibly operated by Israeli specalists, slammed into a minivan bringing middle-aged Karabagh war veterans from Sisian to the front, burning them alive. Recently, the Azeris are testing out Israeli-made Sting missiles on the line of contact. In the new offensive Azerbaijan is preparing, they will be using weapons, intelligence, manpower from Russia, Turkey, Israel … Will state-to-state contacts persuade Israel to change its pro-Azerbaijan, anti-Armenian ways?

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