TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel's Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal on Sunday to designate violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.The step, which still needs approval in Parliament, reflects deteriorating ties between Israel and Turkey.Turkey has fiercely lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognizing the mass deaths of Armenians around 1915 as a genocide, even as Armenians have pushed for it.Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.For years, Israel never officially broached the subject for fear of angering Turkey, but that relationship has soured over the past two decades, especially as the most recent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have dragged on."Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, the Armenian Genocide remains to this day the subject of an institutionalized campaign of denial and minimization, including a manipulative rewriting of history, mainly by the Turkish government," said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who brought the decision to the government.He noted that Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have previously described the violence against Armenians as a genocide.But it has never been formally recognized in a vote by Israel's Knesset."It is never too late to do the right thing," Saar said Sunday, calling it a "moral and historical duty."He noted that 32 countries, including the United States, Syria and Lebanon, have also classified the violence as a genocide.
It was not immediately known when Sunday's decision, approved unanimously by Israel's Cabinet, would go to the parliament for approval.Turkey called Israel's move a "politically motivated" st...