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Armenian community and Haifa city leaders during the inauguration of the Armenian Genocide Square. (Photo: https://asbarez.com/)
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It was recently reported that the city of Haifa decided to dedicate “Armenian Genocide Square,” around the same period that Azerbaijan opened up its brand-new embassy. In a ceremony attended by Armenia’s Ambassador to Israel Dr. Arman Agopian and members of the local Armenian community, the Armenian Genocide Square was dedicated, after earlier on the city of Haifa voted to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide and erect a memorial in the city dedicated to this issue.
While every Knesset to date has refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide as such, with the official Israeli position being that the events of 1915 were a tragedy and not a genocide, local Armenian activists have decided to stop wasting their energy at the national level and revert to the local level to change the atmosphere in Israel. First, in 2020, Petach Tikva recognized the Armenian Genocide and erected a monument there about it. And now, the city of Haifa, the third largest city in Israel, followed suite. This corresponds with Jerusalem re-opening the Armenian Genocide Museum, which has been closed for the past five years due to renovation work.
While it is true that the Armenians have been working on the ground to change the Israeli position from the ground up, it is also true that Azerbaijani Jews in Israel have been fighting against this also from the ground up. In February 2016, 613 trees were planted in the Chaim Weizmann Forest in memory of the victims of the Khojaly Genocide by Aziz with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Jewish National Fund and the Justice for Khojaly Campaign. Every year, Aziz hosts a memorial for the Khojaly Genocide, so that Israelis can be made aware of what Armenia did to the Azerbaijani residents of that town on that horrific night.
As the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy, I do everything in my power to raise awareness about what the Armenians did to Khojaly and other areas of Karabakh, as well as Iran’s repression of Southern Azerbaijanis and Armenia’s oppression of Western Azerbaijanis. At every available opportunity, I discuss how Armenia ethnically cleansed one fifth of Azerbaijan of Azerbaijanis in violation of four UN Security Council Resolutions.
Due to such efforts, there is a great awareness about the Khojaly Genocide in the Jewish state, as well as Armenia’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Azerbaijanis. In his 2015 address to the United Nations, former Israeli President Reuvin Rivlin proclaimed: “[I]s our struggle, the struggle of this Assembly, against genocide, effective enough? Was it effective enough then in Bosnia? Was it effective in preventing the killing in Khojaly? Of Afghans by the Taliban? Is it effective enough today in Syria? Or in the face of the atrocities of Boko Haram in Nigeria? Are we shedding too many tears and taking too little action?”
However, while efforts to raise awareness about the Khojaly Genocide in Israel have been successful, Azerbaijan’s struggle against Armenian activists in Israel is not just political. It is also cultural and historical. More recently, this year, the Taste of Azerbaijan Bakery was opened by Saadat Sukurova Israelov and her husband Erez. In an exclusive interview, Sukurova stated: “Armenia produces national dishes belonging to Azerbaijan under its own name. We have witnessed such situations many times. Even in the books published by them, almost all the dishes are Azerbaijani. We are witnessing the promotion of Armenian cuisine through these books published in different languages. Today, I am proud to say that A Taste of Azerbaijan has created a small place to counter this trend. Israeli Jews often come to this place, showing an interest, tasting Azerbaijani food, and saying that it is delicious. A Taste of Azerbaijan is now familiarizing Jews with this cuisine.”
However, will such efforts be enough to counter the present Armenian campaign to recognize the Armenian Genocide in Israel? I ponder whether it will be. While the present Israeli government is sober and understands the strong need for strong Azerbaijani Israeli and Azerbaijani-Turkish relations, this sentiment does not trickle down to the rest of the country. Several years ago, I visited the Nili House in Zikhron Ya’akov, a local landmark highlighting how a group of Jewish spies worked for the British against the Ottoman Turks, and the local Israeli museum guide was convinced that what happened in 1915 was a genocide against Armenians.
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Similarly, the Yad Vashem website has a section devoted to “Armenian Righteous Among the Nations,” which claims: “Among the rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust were Armenians – some of them motivated by the memory of the atrocities committed against them at the beginning of the 20th century. These acts of rescue took place where the Armenians fled after the genocide – Ukraine, Crimea, France, Hungary, and Austria.”
Sadly, Yad Vashem does not mention on their website the massacre that the Armenians implemented against Azerbaijanis in Guba in 1918, nor the political program of the Hunchaks and Dashnaks, the two main Armenian political parties at the time, to wage a separatist campaign utilizing terrorist methods prior to World War I, making them the first ethno-nationalist terrorist groups as documented in Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media.
As Article Six of the Hunchaks Party stated, “The time for the general revolution in Armenia will be when a foreign power attacks Turkey externally. The party will revolt internally.” Similarly, the Dashnaks program included “arming the people, sabotage, execution of government officials, as well as Armenian traitors and so forth.” Although the Armenians like to compare 1915 to the Holocaust, the fact remains that the Jews of Europe were not waging a separatist struggle against their birth countries. They were murdered merely because they were Jewish. Nevertheless, far too many accept the Armenian claims on this subject without a critical eye. Given this, a lot more must be invested so that Israel does not become like the United States on this issue.
Rachel Avraham is the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and an Israel-based journalist. She is the author of “Women and Jihad: Debating Palestinian Female Suicide Bombings in the American, Israeli and Arab Media.”
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
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Happy reading!
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