By Eitan Elhadez-Barak • June 28, 2026
Jerusalem, 28 June, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s cabinet unanimously approved a formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide on Sunday, with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar presenting the measure as a long-overdue moral obligation — though members of Armenia’s community in Israel greeted the news with a mix of relief and skepticism.
“It is never too late to do the right thing,” Sa’ar told the cabinet. “This is a moral and historical duty. The fact that Turkey promotes false narratives against Israel does not grant it immunity from historical truth.”
Sa’ar was careful to distance the move from Israel’s deepening rift with Ankara. “This is not a ‘retaliatory act’ against the overt hostility and terrible rhetoric of Turkey under Erdogan toward Israel,” he said. “But the time has come for Israel, as a Jewish state, to formalize this position.”
Turkey, as successor to the Ottoman Empire that carried out the systematic massacres and deportations of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 — in which an estimated 1.5 million people perished — strongly rejects the genocide designation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to recent Turkish provocations by calling Erdogan “an antisemitic tyrant who is committing genocide against the Kurds, supports the Hamas terror organization, suppresses his people and jails political opponents.”
Israel joins 32 countries that formally recognize the genocide, including France, Germany, Russia, the Vatican, and the United States.
‘Joy Mixed With Sadness’
“Our feelings are very divided,” said Cristina Movsesyan, chairwoman of the Union of Armenians in Israel. “On one hand, it’s about time — this is a historic recognition and it is finally happening. On the other hand, it is sad and quite cynical. Did the government wait for its relations with Turkey to be completely destroyed before using our tragedy as a political tool? Despite what the foreign minister says, the timing raises questions. Still, the community is grateful.”
Serop Sahagian, a veteran activist who served for years as spokesman for Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, has watched the decades-long lobbying effort from close range.
“We have been chasing this recognition for no less than 26 years,” Sahagian told TPS-IL. “I remember clearly how Yossi Sarid, of blessed memory, who was then education minister, came to the Armenian Quarter on the genocide memorial day and committed that Israel would recognize it officially. Since then, 26 years have passed — of promises and disappointments.”
“The issue rose and fell from the Knesset table like a thermometer of diplomatic relations,” he added. “When relations with Ankara were good, the topic was buried. The moment there was a confrontation, it resurfaced. But today, when the decision passes unanimously in the cabinet, the status changes completely.”
Sahagian also highlighted a paradox little known outside the community: the worldwide Armenian diaspora of some 7 to 8 million people — the majority of the Armenian people — does not always share the priorities of the 3 million living in the Republic of Armenia itself.
“The diaspora Armenians are the immediate victims of the genocide — descendants of those who were murdered and expelled. For us, the moral recognition is everything,” he said. “By contrast, the government in Yerevan is trying to normalize relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan to prevent the next war. They are seeking physical survival; we are seeking historical justice.”
Armenia’s community in Israel numbers several thousand people: some 2,000 to 2,500 permanent residents in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City, and a further 5,000 to 6,000 who arrived from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s and are Israeli citizens. On the eve of the vote, the Armenian Patriarchate sent a formal letter of appreciation to Sa’ar.
“After so many years on the front lines, justice is finally visible — and not just done,” Sahagian said.
