Advocate Eitay Mack and genocide scholar Professor Yair Auron have asked the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to expose to the public any documentation of agreements, understandings, commitments vis-a-vis Azerbaijan and Turkey as to the question of recognizing the Armenian genocide.
In a request sent to Mr. Aryeh Zini, the official in charge of implementing the Freedom of Information Law at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two also ask to uncover any correspondence with Turkish or Azeri representatives on the question of recognizing the Armenian genocide, any documentation of meetings or communications between representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Turkish or Azeri representatives on the question of recognizing the Armenian genocide, decisions and position papers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as to the question of recognizing the Armenian genocide, in view of Turkey and Azerbaijan’s objection.
Eitay Mack and Yair Auron note that “it seems that the official Israeli denial of the Armenian genocide is tied to its diplomatic and military relations with Turkey, and in recent years to the relations with Azerbaijan.”
“So far the contracts between Azeri and Israeli companies with respect to purchasing of defense equipment is close to 5 billion dollars. More precisely – $4,850,000,000. The biggest part of these contracts have already been executed and still we are continuing to work on that and we are very satisfied with the level of this cooperation,” they add.
The request reminds that “on 2011, at the time of a hearing at the Knesset’s Education Committee, on the Armenian genocide, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Danny Ayalon, former Chairman of the Knesset Education Committee, MK Alex Miller, as well as additional MK’s from ‘Israel Beitenu’ party clarified unequivocally to the Azeri media that the State of Israel would not recognize the Armenian genocide so as not to harm relations with Azerbaijan.”
In an interview on 24.5.2011, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said: “There is not a chance that the Knesset will recognize the Armenian genocide…We cannot afford to tarnish our relations with Azerbaijan, our key strategic ally in the Islamic world, over controversial historical issues concerning century-long events.”
And MK Alex Miller said: “We are not going to determine whether or not genocide occurred. It would be naive to presume that the commission on education, culture and sports would be an entity within which we will not only address issues dating back almost a hundred years but also our strategic relations with Israel’s key ally in the Islamic world.”
Eitay Mack and Yair Auron, thus, request that the Ministry disclose the following information:
- Any documentation of agreements, understandings, commitments vis-a-vis Azerbaijan and Turkey as to the question of recognizing the Armenian genocide.
- Any correspondence with Turkish or Azeri representatives on the question of recognizing the Armenian genocide.
- Any documentation of meetings or communications between representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Turkish or Azeri representatives on the question of recognizing the Armenian genocide.
- Decisions and position papers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as to the question of recognizing the Armenian genocide, in view of Turkey and Azerbaijan’s objection.
Source: http://www.armradio.am/en/2018/01/08/israeli-foreign-ministry-asked-to-disclose-armenian-genocide-related-documentation/