Israel recruits Armenian intellectuals to its missions abroad
After its involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) War on behalf of Azerbaijan, Israel began recruiting educated Armenian young men into its embassies and missions abroad. This move appears to be part of an effort to cover up its actions against the Armenian people—both in Armenia and the diaspora broadly, and against the Armenians of Jerusalem in particular.
Israel’s failure to recognize the genocide of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Turks during World War I, its complicity in the genocide of the Armenian people in Artsakh, and its support for Jewish settlers’ attacks on Armenian property in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem have angered Armenians worldwide. This cunning approach was employed with the Druze community in Israel, whose youth are conscripted into the Israeli military.
On several occasions, Israel has appointed Druze ambassadors and representatives abroad as a means of projecting inclusivity, while simultaneously declaring itself a Jewish state exclusively for the Jewish people. This culminated in the passage of the 2018 Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which formally defines the state as serving exclusively Jewish interests. The law was passed with 62 votes in favor, 55 against and two abstentions in the Knesset on July 19, 2018.
In recent months, during Israel’s war of extermination against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, it has demolished homes in Druze villages under the pretext that they were built without permits. (It is worth noting that, in one case, a Druze Israeli soldier returned from the Gaza Strip to find his home demolished by Jews.)
Now, we see that two of our best educated young men have been appointed to Israeli embassies in Europe—one as ambassador to Azerbaijan, the other as deputy chief of mission and consul in Albania, which also covers Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This raises difficult but necessary questions: Are these young men really educated, or merely holders of academic degrees indoctrinated by the Israeli system? Are they being brainwashed by a hegemonic institution that seeks to not only deny the Armenian cause and its genocide, but also negate any Armenian claims to it? Are they forced or threatened to accept such political positions as part of a broader strategy to camouflage Israel’s atrocities and dispossessions—as we can detect in the case of the “Goverun Bardez” (the Armenian Garden) in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter? Are they doing it for the sake of money? Or to brag about a prestigious position while turning a blind eye to their Armenian roots and identity, history of suffering and dignified futurity?
I argue that we should not personalize our critique of our community members. Rather, we should invest in education—on awakening future generations to identity lynching, and protect them from maiming their Armenian identity.
Dr. Gaby Kevorkian
Armenian Quarter, Jerusalem
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I am not sure why the author feels an extreme unease with the Israeli practice of hiring and assigning Armenians to the “Diplomatic Corps” of the Jewish nation.
Dr. Kevorkian provides several explanations revolving around the notion that Israeli laws declare the country as an exclusively Jewish homeland, yet simultaneously international public opinion is manipulated by emphasizing the fact that minorities (Druze, Armenians) are recruited and promoted to sensitive positions in the State bureaucracy.
Israel, like any other country, is not using the wrong script to polish its tarnished reputation, especially after the genocidal war that the IDF has been conducting in Gaza since October 2023. Israel is trying to convince the rest of the world that it respects minorities, but has to butcher 54,000 innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, mostly women and children, because they are all terrorists questioning the right of the Jewish State to exist.
While the Jewish State is pursuing its vested interests, we cannot say the same of Armenians coopted to the service of the Jewish State. Are the Armenians serving the Jewish State aware that Israel is a staunch supporter of the Aliyev regime, and made significant contributions to the victory of the Azerbaijani Army during the 44-Day War that claimed the lives of 5,000 brave Armenian soldiers?
What about the Armenians who are not Israeli citizens, yet without any qualms have joined Israeli corporations operating freely in Armenia? One concrete example that comes to mind is the son of Armenia’s Prime Minister Ashot Pashinyan. He has been hired as a “Talent Acquisition Manager” for the Israeli WeBiz company. All the founders and high ranking executives of WeBiz had, and still have, close association with UNIT 8200 of The IDF. For more details use the following link:
https://artsakhtheinadequateresponse.blogspot.com/2023/05/is-treachery-dominant-trait-of.html
Now, did Ashot Pashinyan accept the job offer made by WeBiz out of ignorance of the valuable contributions made by UNIT 8200 to the victory of the Azeri Army during the 44-Day War? Was he motivated by stupidity? Was it greed? Or simply utter indifference to the national security of Armenia?
Last but not least, what about Armenians who work for The CIA, MI6, FSB? Do they know that the vital interests of Armenia are constantly undermined by the very intelligence agencies they serve?