Israel Dared To Recognize Armenian Genocide; Now On Turkey's Bad List

     Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

   Many scholars believe that the Biblical city of Haran was within the borders of current-day Turkey. 

That means that Abraham and his grandson Jacob lived in Turkey, and that all four Matriarchs and eleven of the Twelve Tribes were born there!                                   

Today, you can say that Turkey and Israel have transitioned from once-strong regional partners to open rivals, with tensions escalating over Middle East influence, the war in Gaza, and the conflict in Syria . Although direct military conflict is actively constrained by U.S. pressure, both nations frequently exchange sharp diplomatic warnings and have recalled their respective ambassadors.  While a formal trade embargo was announced, commercial ties persist through indirect trade and energy transit . The diplomatic relationship has deteriorated further with Turkey accusing Israel of regional destabilization and, more recently, Israel’s historic recognition of the Armenian genocide drawing fierce condemnation from Ankara.  Israel had put off recognizing Armenia for just this reason not wanting to anger Turkey.

       Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during the opening ceremony of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, in Antalya, southern Turkey, April 17, 2026. (AP/Riza Ozel)

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, of incitement to genocide on Thursday after Fidan  called Israel a “burden that humanity can no longer bear” and said it was a “problem” for the world.  Fidan made the comments in a TV interview, in which he called for global sanctions on Israel. His comments followed Israel’s recognition this week of the 1915 Armenian genocide, which Ankara denies.                             

By Reuters:  Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

July 4, 20268:09 AM PDTUpdated 6 hours ago.  

Sometimes called the first genocide of the twentieth century, the Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the multiethnic Ottoman Empire in 1915. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide, either in massacres and individual killings, or from systematic ill treatment, exposure, and starvation.  Ottoman authorities, supported by auxiliary troops and at times by civilians, perpetrated most of the persecution and mass killing. The Ottoman government, controlled by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP; also called the Young Turks), aimed to solidify Muslim Turkish dominance in the regions of central and eastern Anatolia by eliminating the sizeable Armenian presence there.                                         

      Anatolian women:  DNA of women today:  Anatolian Turks (Greek, Armenian, Arab, Syriac, Georgian, Hittite)

Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is a vast peninsula in West Asia that comprises the majority of modern Turkey . Bounded by the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea, the region has served as a vital geographic and cultural bridge connecting the continents of Europe and Asia.

The victims of the Armenian genocide include people killed in local massacres that began in spring 1915; others who died during deportations, under conditions of starvation, dehydration, exposure, and disease; and Armenians who died in or en route to the desert regions of the southern Empire [today: northern and eastern Syria, northern Saudi Arabia, and Iraq]. In addition, tens of thousands of Armenian children were forcibly removed from their families and converted to Islam.

 There have  been established Jewish communities in what is now Turkey since antiquity, as attested to by the discovery of a 2000-year-old synagogue in Sardis. Throughout Byzantine rule (from the 4th to 14th centuries), the community was small, mostly consisting of Greek-speaking Romaniote Jews, and they suffered greatly from forced conversions to Christianity and other persecutions like the Armenians.

Resource: 

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/7394378/jewish/11-Facts-About-the-Jews-of-Turkey.htm

Wikipedia

https://www.timesofisrael.com/saar-accuses-turkish-fm-of-incitement-to-genocide-for-saying-humanity-cannot-bear-israel/

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-overview