Chief Rabbi of Israel Recognizes the Armenian Genocide

[1.5 million]

I assume then that your plan would be to give the Kurds back their land in Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq; fair is fair, right?

exactly...yeah and Turks like UKTurks advocating fighting for territories and speaking about the supremacy of a (foreign) culture - meanwhile he lives the good life in the UK etc

[Gavur]

Rabbi Recognizes Armenian Genocide

“I use the term “genocide”. The photos we saw in the Genocide Museum speak for themselves. No one can sympathize with the Armenians like we, the Jewish, can,” Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger stated today at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims.

Voicing his spiritual and religious solidarity with the Armenian people, Yona Metzger reminded that the religious powers in Israel do not interfere in the state affairs and cannot force the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Israeli authorities.

As for those political figures denying the Genocide the Rabbi said, “We do not share such position.”

Israeli MP, who was interpreting the Rabbi’s speech for his part added that his country enjoys good relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey. “Turkey is our important ally, however no one has the right to change the past. In his words, if not the Armenian Genocide Holocaust could be avoided, since the Genocide served as a permission for the fascist Germany.

The Chief Rabbi of Israel planted a fir on the alley to the Genocide victims. Then the Jewish delegation hurried to the meeting with the RA Prime Minister.

http://www.a1plus.am/eng/?go=issue&id=33770

[UKTurk]

Also theres a rumor that the Kurds have always been sponsored by the jew

That wouldn't suprise me because the Kurds are Genetically related to the Jews.

I assume then that your plan would be to give the Kurds back their land in Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq; fair is fair, right?

When Ataturk led the Turks and Kurds to victory back in the war of independance. Everyone including the Kurds decided that the two peoples will live together under one flag and one nation.

[UKTurk]

Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq is not land of kurds and they are not majority in there....so it is unfair...

and I also have a question to you... iis it fair that Armeania has been supported PKK that is murderer of 40.000 innocent people

The Armenians dont actively support the PKK. Some might passively though. Maybe ASALA and the PKK had links (I'd say they probably did have some links) when ASALA was active.

[Gavur]

I believe Evil has no nationality
All Evil is linked of course!

[Tongue]

From "European Jewish Press":




Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger said the Jewish community recognizes the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians as a genocide, during an historic visit to Armenia on Tuesday.

Metzger, the first Israeli religious leader to set foot on Armenian soil, spoke of deep emotion on his visit to the genocide memorial complex in Yerevan together with Garegin II, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Standing by its eternal fire, Metzger said a prayer in remembrance of the dead.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
But the Turkish government strenuously denies this, saying that 300,000 Armenians and as many Turks were killed in a civil war when the Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against the Ottoman Empire.

The term ’genocide’

"The Jewish religious community recognizes the fact of the genocide, and, together with the Armenian people, grieves for the innocent victims," Metzger said at the Yerevan memorial complex.

"Hitler’s remark that the world did not care about the Armenian tragedy was not accidental"
Yuri Stern, Israeli MP


"Of course, I use the term ’genocide,’" he said after laying a wreath at the memorial. "All the pictures and documents we have seen at the Genocide Museum prove that," Metzger said.
As for those political figures denying the genocide the rabbi said: "We do not share such positions."
However, Israel has not officially recognized the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians as a genocide.
Yuri Stern, a member of Israeli parliament who accompanied Metzger, drew parallels between the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust on Tuesday.
"Hitler’s remark that the world did not care about the Armenian tragedy was not accidental," Stern said.
"For those assassins who exterminated one third of our people, the fact that the world was silent when Armenians were being killed was kin to a license to kill Jews. We know this and must not place political expediency above everything else," Stern added.
Although Israel does not recognize the 1915 mass killings as genocide, several countries in Europe and the European Parliament recognize the 1915 tragedy as a genocide.

Turkish ’shocked’

Deniz Saporta, the press officer for Turkey’s chief rabbi Itzak Haleva, told EJP that Turkey’s Jewish community did not want to interfere on the national debate of the genocide.
It is ironical that it was the Ottoman Empire that saved Spanish Jews from another genocide in Spain in the 1492 by shipping them to Turkey
Selcuk Gultasli
"We only heard about it today, and we are a little shocked," Saporta said. "Let the historians do their job and then we will se," she added. No official statement form the rabbinate was released so far.
"It is rather a surprise, I my personal opinion, to see a Jewish religious leader accepting Armenian allegations of genocide," Selcuk Gultasli, Zaman publications Brussels Representative, told EJP.

"The Chief Rabbi should have read one of the most respected Ottoman history scholars, American professor of Jewish origin Bernard Lewis who calls the claims unfounded."
"It is ironical that it was the Ottoman Empire that saved Spanish Jews from another genocide in Spain in the 1492 by shipping them to Turkey," Gultasli concluded.
The Armenian Diaspora in Europe could not be contacted by EJP on Thursday.

Denying genocide

Marc Knobel, a charge d’affaire for the CRIF Jewish umbrella organization in France stressed that there was not a single view on the debate in Israel; some scholars and politicians to not believe it was a genocide, but many in Israel disagreed.

"It is just shameful that many people, and among them Jews, deny the Armenian genocide for despicable reasons"
Marc Knobel

"The declarations of the Israeli Chief rabbi are honorable. It is totally respectuous of the Armenian tragedy to qualify these events as a genocide," he stressed.
Ara Toranian, Director of the of the New Armenia review, pointed out that the Jewish state’s position on the matter did not reflect the Jewish people position. "Israel has to endorse a ’real politik’ strategy vis-a-vis Turkey," he said. "I am very glad of these declarations from the chief rabbi especially because such a voice is authoritative," he added.
"The CRIF has a moderate and reasonable view on the matter," Knobel added, alluding to the organization engaged dialogue with Armenian groups. "Without comparing and equalizing each genocide, we can say that the mass extermination of Armenians, Jews Cambodians and Tutsis in Rwanda are genocides," he said. "without omitting the specificity of the Shoah."
"It is just shameful that many people, and among them Jews, deny the Armenian genocide for despicable reasons," Knobel concluded.

http://www.ejpress.org/article/news/france/4334

[maral_m79]

The Armenians dont actively support the PKK. Some might passively though. Maybe ASALA and the PKK had links (I'd say they probably did have some links) when ASALA was active.

I'm curious, why would ASALA make links with PKK ?

That is another "stereotype" Turks like to thin of !!!!

[UKTurk]

Erm... I dunno something tells me it would have been to do with the PKK and ASALA demanding certain things from the Turkish government...

If they did they could have co-ordinate larger scaled attacks.

Armenia could have and still could be a safe haven for the PKK.

[Kharpert]

So, PKK and ALASA are related because it just looks that way? I think it requires much more concrete evidence to make that sort of connection.

[Kharpert]

We do not deny the actions of ASALA, but the connection between PKK and ASALA is highly disputed. I don't want the PKK to be considered an Armenian terrorist organization just because it looks like it might have been.