Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has made his first public comment on the French bill on criminalization of denial of the Armenian Genocide. Until recently, his supporters from the “Israel is our home”, Deputy Foreign Minister Dani Ayalon and Chairman of the fraction Robert Ilatov, were opposed to public statements.
RTVi reported last week that Lieberman had been against the term “Holocaust” since the state was established. Attempts to turn conflicts and massacres in Africa, Asia and Balkans into another Holocaust are unacceptable, he says.
The foreign minister emphasized that history should not turn into a political dispute. Thus, Israel should not interfere, he says.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon said in May 2011 that the Israeli parliament would never recognize the Armenian Genocide, so as not to spoil relations with an old strategic partner Azerbaijan over history.
He said four months later that mass murders of Armenians during WWI had been a sensitive issue, but it had not become a political problem. Ayalon added that Israel had never denied the Armenian tragedy but would not want to join the Turkish-Armenian confrontation in the issue.
