Knesset to discuss Armenian Genocide amid deteriorating Turkey ties

A Knesset panel has announced its plan to hold the first official public debate on the Armenian Genocide, officials said Wednesday, in what many see as a further sign of Israel's deteriorating ties with long-time ally Turkey.

Israel has long evaded a public discussion of the 1915-era killings of Armenians by Turkish forces, also avoiding calling the attack "genocide," out of fears of disrupting its long-standing diplomatic and military alliance with Turkey.

In recent years, former Meretz MK Haim Oron had repeatedly attempted to raise the issue at the Knesset's Education panel, with government officials moving to cancel the debate.

Last year, as ties with Turkey had begun to fray following Israel's war in Gaza against Hamas and an attack on a Turkish aid flotilla in 2010, Oron was granted approval to discuss the Armenian Genocide in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the meetings of which are closed to the media.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/knesset-to-discuss-armenian-genocide-amid-deteriorating-turkey-ties-1.362576