In marking Armenian tragedy, Rivlin skirts term ‘genocide’

Israeli Pesident Reuven Rivlin avoided Sunday referring to the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman forces a century ago as a “genocide,” opting instead for the term “mass killings” as he spoke during an official ceremony marking 100 years since the lives of the first victims were claimed. 

The president’s shunning of the term came amid speculation that he would officially acknowledge — in a first for a sitting Israeli head of state — the massacre as a genocide, over vehement and persistent Turkish opposition to the use of the word.

“In 1915, when the members of the Armenian nation were being massacred, the residents of Jerusalem, my parents and the members of my family saw the Armenian refugees arriving in their thousands,” Rivlin said, addressing members of the local Armenian community who gathered at the President’s Residence in the capital.

“In Jerusalem they found shelter, and you, their descendants, continue to live here today. No one in Jerusalem denied the massacre that had taken place. As you know, this has been my personal view ever since. We are morally obligated to point out the facts, as horrible as they might be, not ignore them. The Armenian people have been the first victim of modern mass killing.”

The president noted that the Israeli government had sent an official delegation to ceremonies and events in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, in order to join in commemorating the tragedy. He said Israel was not seeking to place the blame for the killings on a certain country or people, but rather aimed to identify with the victims and the horrible results of the massacre.

“Today, when the fundamentalist viper raises its ugly head again, we must remember that evil is not the property of any specific religion; just as it is not the attribute of any specific country or ethnic group,” he said.

“We must not allow anyone to make a cynical usage of rhetoric on human rights for political purposes. Two weeks ago we commemorated the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. After this horrible Holocaust, commemorating the tragedy of the Armenian people is our Jewish obligation, a human and moral one,” Rivlin concluded.

Before Rivlin was elected president, he was a vocal advocate of Israeli recognition of the genocide. As MK and Knesset speaker, he strongly argued that the moral imperative not to deny another people’s suffering must trump the dictates of Israel’s diplomatic and geopolitical needs.

The ceremony was attended by Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, the Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem, who following Rivlin’s speech said he was “greatly disappointed” that the Israeli leader failed to use the term genocide. Manougian nevertheless thanked Rivlin for organizing the event.