Friday, March 6 2015 07:59

 On April 24, Israel will send a delegation to the events timed to the Armenian Genocide Centennial, not to the events celebrating the " Dardanel operation" in Ankara.

The Russian-Israeli journalist and political activist Avigdor Eskin believes that his country has always avowed the fact of the massacre of Armenians in Turkey in 1915.  "I don't know a single Israeli who would dispute the fact of the massacre and deportation of the Armenian population. Therefore, both our Knesset members and ministers will be in Yerevan on that day," Eskin told ArmInfo.

As for the "Gallipoli idea" of President Recep Erdogan, Eskin believes that the Turkish president bluntly tries to draw the attention of the international community at the centennial of the "Dardanel operation" and landing of the Australian and New Zealand forces (ANZAC) on Gallipoli. "The indiscretion of the Turkish president is astonishing. Israel will not be represented there, indeed," Eskin said.

For the time being the relations of Armenia and Israel are impeded with Israel's closer relationships with Azerbaijan and depend on the Turkish-Israeli relations. In addition, Israel has not yet recognized the Genocide of Armenians and uses this issue to press Ankara which it has quite tense relations with now. 

In this light, the working visit of Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian to Jerusalem on March 5 was quite noteworthy. The minister and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin had a meeting and came out for activation of the political dialogue to boost cooperation in other fields too. Nalbandian and Rivlin discussed also the 'joint efforts of the Armenian and Jewish peoples to prevent crimes against humanity,' the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.  

Eskin believes that Israel cannot sign Armenia's version of the history. "The world has learned about the Armenian tragedy thanks to four Jews: Morgenthau from the US Embassy, Mandelstam from the Embasys of Russia, and Franz  Werfel and Raphael Lemkin, whose contribution to recognition of that crime is invaluable. I dare to say that Jewish public workers and publicists did more to make the world learn about the Armenian tragedy than all the other countries put together. In response, we have the Armenian version of the history with terrible allegations against Jews and Zionism that allegedly backed the Armenian massacre. We cannot accept the history that contains false accusations against us," Eskin said.