Armenian Genocide 104th Anniversary and Israel's Conundrum

Articles: https://www.i24news.tv/en Live: https://video.i24news.tv/page/live?clip=5a94117623eec6000c557fec (Subscription) Replay: https://video.i24news.tv/page/5a97b81f23eec6000c55857d?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the_rundown&utm_content=en2 (Subscription) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/i24newsEN/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/i24NEWS_EN Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/i24news/ NEWS DESK | It's been over a century since the WWI Turks of the Ottoman Empire massacred 1.5 million Armenians, under the claim that the minority group was cooperating with the Russian enemy. Now, Armenians are pushing Israel to recognize the same type of horror that happened to the Jewish people only decades later. Our Diana Skaya has the story. Story: We remember and we demand. This is the slogan for Armenians worldwide every April 24 — the day they march to commemorate the ethnic cleansing of 1.5 million of their ancestors by the Ottoman Turks in WWI. Over 200 Armenian intellectuals were arrested, imprisoned and executed in Istanbul. Soon, the order would go out to deport and exterminate Armenian civilians in villages all across Ottoman Armenia, serving as the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. By the end of WWI, those that survived were exiled throughout the Middle East. One hundred and four years later, the systematic massacre of the Armenians remains widely disputed. To date, 29 countries officially recognize the 1915 killings as genocide. Turkey does not and neither does Israel. SOT: Former Israeli Ambassdor to Armenia, BARUCH BEN NERIA "Everyone knows what the question is and what has to bedone,” former Israeli Ambassador to Armenia Baruch Neria says. Neria says that even though Israeli lawmakers have considered recognizing the Armenian Genocide as a moral obligation, Israel's strong economic and strategic relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan won't allow it. “Turkey is a very important country in this region. We are buying a lot of oil from Azerbaijan. So altogether, it makes this question very sensitive,” Neria explains. The representative of the Armenian community of Jerusalem feels Israel uses the Armenian question as a tool to challenge Ankara whenever it feels threatened. For Harout Baghamian, the Armenian community of Jerusalem’s representative, and Armenians around the globe, Armenian Genocide recognition by Turkey is vital in order to achieve peace and establish those diplomatic relations, but they believe that no dialogue can happen before Turkey accepts responsibility for 1915. "Most importantly for me as an Armenian Jerusalemite, for Israel to recognize the Armenian genocide," Baghamian says. “Politically speaking, the time is not there to recognize its full," Neria claims. The question now is: When exactly will that time come for Israel to say "it was genocide"? "This crime was not only against the Armenian nation, but it was against mankind and humanity,” Baghamian asserts.