Israel has moved to recognise the actions of the Ottoman Empire in Armenia during the First World War as a genocide for the first time in a significant reversal of its long-standing position.
The Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal to advance the recognition on Sunday, with the measure now set for a Knesset vote to affirm it as official foreign policy.
Historical estimates suggest that as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed under the Ottomans between 1915 and 1917, amid the minority’s campaign for autonomy and, eventually, independence from the empire.
Proponents of the genocide classification cite a mixture of massacres, death marches through the Syrian desert, deportations and forced Islamisation as evidence of a systematic attempt to destroy the Armenian people.
Modern-day Turkey, though, claims that the death toll has been exaggerated and the actions of its colonial predecessor were a legitimate part of a civil war against Armenian separatists.
As of 2026, 35 countries, including the US, Russia and much of Europe, as well as the EU and the Vatican, have recognised the genocide, as have several prominent Jewish organisations, including the ADL, the American Jewish Committee and the Union for Reform Judaism.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who brought the proposal to cabinet, said: “Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, the Armenian Genocide remains to this day the subject of an institutionalised campaign of denial and minimisation, including a manipulative rewriting of history, mainly by the Turkish government.
“It is widely believed that the Ottoman Empire committed crimes amounting to genocide in a systematic manner, with the aim of destroying the Armenian people.”
“It is never too late to do the right thing,” he added, calling the step a “moral and historical duty”.
The decision comes amid a further souring of relations between Israel and Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for the destruction of the Jewish State.
In response, the Turkish Foreign Ministry accused Israel of committing a genocide of its own in Gaza and using the recognition as a distraction tactic to avoid international scrutiny.
"The Israeli government, which systematically persecutes the Palestinian people in full view of the world and is being tried at the International Court of Justice for genocide against the people of Gaza, aims to cover up its own crimes,” a spokesperson said.
"This malicious attempt, which disregards legal and historical facts, reveals the predicament of Netanyahu and his accomplices, who have arrest warrants against them in connection with the investigation into crimes committed against Palestinians at the International Criminal Court.”
The decision also attracted criticism from Azerbaijan, an Israeli ally whose relations with Armenia are historically fraught due to a series of conflicts over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, with the latest ceasefire agreed in 2025 after two years of open war.
"The decision by the Israeli government concerning the so-called 'Armenian Genocide' is a matter of serious concern,” read a statement from its foreign ministry.
"The distortion of the historical facts surrounding the events of 1915, and the reduction of a complex historical issue to a political decision without a sound legal or scholarly basis, are unacceptable.”
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