By: TPS Staff
Armenia’s Ambassador to Israel Armen Smbatyan, who has to date worked from the Armenian capital Yerevan, is to become the permanent Ambassador to Israel and is expected to arrive in Israel soon.
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian last Tuesday signed an order to amend the decision of March 31, 2018, in which Smbatyan was appointed ambassador to Israel, residing, however, in Yerevan, from where he has worked remotely to this day. According to the Armenian news agency, Armenpress, Smbatyan’s place of residence is to be relocated to Tel Aviv.
Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Israel were established in April 1992 and, in September 2019, the Armenian government approved the decision to open a permanent embassy in Israel with TPS learning that Armenian diplomats have arrived in Israel in the past days and are preparing the embassy for its opening soon.
In 2016, it was reported that the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee decided to recognize the Armenian genocide at a meeting initiated by Meretz Chairwoman MK Zehava Galon.
“It is our moral obligation to recognize the holocaust of the Armenian nation,” said the committee’s chairman and Shas MK Yaakov Margi.
Israel had previously abstained from recognizing the genocide in order to avoid negative repercussions on its relationship with Turkey. Israel signed a reconciliation agreement with the country following a strain in bilateral relations since the summer of 2010.
Nevertheless, in 2016 MK Margi called upon Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to follow through on remarks he made the previous year at a committee meeting at which he said that he would work to have the Knesset formally recognize the Armenian genocide.
“I will try to promote the issue and I hope that MKs will know the right way to vote at the moment of truth,” Edelstein said in July of 2015.
“I visited one of the Armenian memorial sites and it is very hard to ignore what I saw there,” he continued . “I expect that I and the Knesset behave appropriately so that we can make decisions according to the moral standards of a democratic state.”
MK Galon also lamented Israel’s continued failure to recognize the Armenian genocide.
“Each year we instill false hope in the people sitting here,” said Galon. “It dishonors the Knesset to continue going on and on about this issue, year after year, without reaching a decision that the State of Israel and the Knesset recognize the genocide of the Armenian people.”
Georgette Avakian, chairwoman of the Armenian National Committee in Jerusalem, echoed remarks made by Margi and Galon.
“The Knesset and the president of the State of Israel must recognize the genocide of our people,” she insisted.
Eli Belozerkowski, Israeli Ambassador to Armenia and Moldova told TPS: “We welcome the rise in Israeli-Armenian relations and we welcome the expected arrival of Ambassador Armen Smbatyan in the coming weeks, as well as the preparations for opening a permanent embassy in Israel.”
Speaking to TPS, Belozerkowski added: “It should be noted that last January, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian, who attended the main event for the liberation of the Auschwitz Extermination Camp held at Yad Vashem, visited Israel with President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and lectures in several places in the country, including the Technion and the Technological Institute in Holon.”
(TPS)
