ISRAEL’S PRESIDENT DRAWS DIRECT HISTORICAL LINK BETWEEN WORLD’S FAILURE TO PREVENT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND HOLOCAUST
by Nana Martirosyan
Thursday, April 23, 11:28
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin Israel’s President drew a direct
historical link between the world’s failure to prevent the Armenian
genocide and the Holocaust. The president made such statement in a
closed session with journalists held last week in Jerusalem in honor
of Israel Independence Day.
“The Nazis,” he said, “used the Armenian genocide as something that
gave them permission to bring the Holocaust into reality.”
Rivlin also welcomed Pope Francis’s April 12 statement, in which he
referred to the slaughter of the Armenians as the “first genocide
of the Twentieth Century.” “This is important to Christians, Jews,
Muslims-to human beings,” Rivlin said.
It is not the first time Rivlin makes such statements. Nevertheless,
in Dec 2014, he refused to sign the annual message calling on Israel
to official recognize the Armenian Genocide.
According to the Armenian Assembly of America, around the world, the
Jewish community is rallying in support of official acknowledgment of
the Armenian Genocide. Jewish leaders and organizations have joined
the call for the U.S. government to officially characterize the
systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago as genocide.
In the past 24 hours, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, the American
Jewish Committee, and the editorial board of Jewish Week condemned
the atrocities of 1915.
Nevertheless, Tel-Aviv’s stand on the Armenian Genocide is uncertain.
In a speech before the United Nations commemorating the Holocaust the
following month, however, Rivlin implicitly recognized the Armenian
genocide and drew a direct connection between the world’s failure to
act in 1915, again during the Holocaust, and then again in subsequent
genocides around the world. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman, publicly denies the fact of Genocide and actively support
the Turkish-Azerbaijani lobby.
From: A. Papazian