For decades, Armenians and their supporters in Israel have sought to convince the Israeli government to officially recognize the World War I Turkish genocide of the Armenians, while pro-Israel U.S. lobbies, such as AIPAC, worked diligently to dissuade the United States from formally acknowledging this extermination of Armenians as genocide. Ironically, in 1951, the U.S. Department of State cited the fate of these Armenians as an example of genocide in a written statement to the International Court of Justice, stating, “The Roman persecution of Christians, the Turkish massacres of Armenians, and the extermination of millions of Jews and Poles by the Nazis are outstanding examples of the crime of genocide.” The U.S. officially recognized this genocide in 2020. For many reasons, Israel has not recognized the Armenian genocide. Israeli reticence has turned out fortuitous.
Given the current carnage that has befallen Gaza, West Bank Palestinians, and even Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, Israel has lost the perception of having a moral high ground concerning issues of racist pogroms, massacres, and genocides. This loss is disappointing and will be an issue that will take Israel years to overcome, if ever. It is one thing for Israel to have historically solid ties with Turkey and maintain convenient relations with Azerbaijan, thus contributing to its disregard of the Armenian genocide. Yet, it is another matter entirely when Israel facilitated the Azerbaijani conquest of Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 through the sale of high-tech weaponry to Baku. With this victory, Azerbaijan gained control of an additional 140 km of border with Iran, which benefits those monitoring Iran and inciting separatist tensions in Azerbaijani-speaking regions of northwest Iran. It is not that the Israeli government or Israelis dislike Armenians in favor of Azerbaijanis, but supporting Azerbaijan aligns with Israel’s economic interests and regional political goals. Nonetheless, Israeli arms and technology contributed to the deaths of thousands of Armenians during the 2020 Karabakh War. Ironically, Hamas congratulated Azerbaijan on its conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh, a conquest which eventually led to the violent eviction of 120,000 Armenians, this month last year.
A similar situation occurred in the early twentieth century when both early Zionists and European imperialist powers were interested in fracturing the Ottoman Empire and creating colonial mandates by fostering nationalism among its various ethnic constituents. The aim was to create a parochial ethnic context into the pan-Islamic culture that existed across the empire, thereby facilitating internal strife during World War I and making its disintegration easier in the war’s aftermath. Although there was active debate during early Zionist Congresses about whether to support any despotic Turkish rule, particularly over Armenians, Zionist elements supported the 1908 Young Turk movement that ousted the Ottoman Sultanate. Many of these supporters, known as “Dönme” in Turkish, outwardly adhered to Islam while secretly maintaining their original faith. In 1913, a coup by a virulent nationalist faction of the Young Turks expedited the planning and eventual execution of this genocide.
The historical record is clear: in hastening the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, a fervent pan-Turanist (pan-Turkic) ideology came to dominate the Young Turk movement, actively encouraged by Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and other imperial powers. This crude nationalism had a devastating impact on the Armenians, who were dehumanized and equated with vermin, much like the way ‘supposed non-Aryans’ were characterized by the Nazis. Zionists certainly welcomed the dismemberment of the Ottoman state as it aligned with their goal of establishing a presence in Palestine.
Did these Zionists actively encourage the Young Turks to exterminate Armenians directly? It does not appear so, according to the Nili Network reports. However, as in the 2020 Karabakh War, with overwhelming strategic interests in the dynamic, Armenians became casualties.
It is not necessary to detail the scale of destruction and massive human suffering inflicted upon the Palestinians by the current Israeli government and argue for or against rationalizations offered by the Israeli state, political factions, its citizens, or its supporters who say that Hamas must be eliminated. Events in Gaza have reached genocidal proportions.
I do not speak for all, but this view is supported by many. Any effort to have the government of Israel, or any government capable of causing such extensive human and material devastation, recognize the Turkish extermination of the Armenians as genocide is beyond hypocritical, only to be surpassed by Israeli recognition.
Yerevan, Armenia
Author: David Davidian – Lecturer at the American University of Armenia. He has spent over a decade in technical intelligence analysis at major high technology firms. He resides in Yerevan, Armenia
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