TEL AVIV OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

TEL AVIV, JUNE 28 /SRNA/ – The Israeli government has unanimously adopted a proposal for Israel to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said it was the moral duty of the Jewish people and the State of Israel to make such a decision, the Times of Israel portal reported.

"This terrible genocide, which took place more than 100 years ago and whose historical facts are truly undisputed, claimed the lives of one and a half million people and led to the destruction of an ancient cultural and historical heritage," Sa'ar said.

He added that it is never too late to do what is right.

"I thank Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his support, as well as my fellow ministers in the government," Sa'ar said.

Last week, Sa'ar announced that he would propose that the government officially recognise the genocide against the Armenian people committed during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

For decades, Armenians have sought international recognition of the mass killings of the early 20th century, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed, as genocide.

Turkey, as the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, firmly rejects claims that the massacres, imprisonment and forced deportations of Armenians constituted genocide.