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| Israeli chief rabbi in historic Armenia visit
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Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger
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Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger said the Jewish community recognizes the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians as a genocide, during an historic visit to Armenia on Tuesday.
Metzger, the first Israeli religious leader to set foot on Armenian soil, spoke of deep emotion on his visit to the genocide memorial complex in Yerevan together with Garegin II, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Standing by its eternal fire, Metzger said a prayer in remembrance of the dead.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
But the Turkish government strenuously denies this, saying that 300,000 Armenians and as many Turks were killed in a civil war when the Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against the Ottoman Empire.
The term ’genocide’
"The Jewish religious community recognizes the fact of the genocide, and, together with the Armenian people, grieves for the innocent victims," Metzger said at the Yerevan memorial complex.
 Hitler’s remark that the world did not care about the Armenian tragedy was not accidental
Yuri Stern, Israeli MP | "Of course, I use the term ’genocide,’" he said after laying a wreath at the memorial. "All the pictures and documents we have seen at the Genocide Museum prove that," Metzger said.
As for those political figures denying the genocide the rabbi said: "We do not share such positions."
However, Israel has not officially recognized the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians as a genocide.
Yuri Stern, a member of Israeli parliament who accompanied Metzger, drew parallels between the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust on Tuesday.
"Hitler’s remark that the world did not care about the Armenian tragedy was not accidental," Stern said.
"For those assassins who exterminated one third of our people, the fact that the world was silent when Armenians were being killed was kin to a license to kill Jews. We know this and must not place political expediency above everything else," Stern added.
Although Israel does not recognize the 1915 mass killings as genocide, several countries in Europe and the European Parliament recognize the 1915 tragedy as a genocide.
Turkish ’shocked’
Deniz Saporta, the press officer for Turkey’s chief rabbi Itzak Haleva, told EJP that Turkey’s Jewish community did not want to interfere on the national debate of the genocide.
It is ironical that it was the Ottoman Empire that saved Spanish Jews from another genocide in Spain in the 1492 by shipping them to Turkey
Selcuk Gultasli | "We only heard about it today, and we are a little shocked," Saporta said. "Let the historians do their job and then we will se," she added. No official statement form the rabbinate was released so far.
"It is rather a surprise, I my personal opinion, to see a Jewish religious leader accepting Armenian allegations of genocide," Selcuk Gultasli, Zaman publications Brussels Representative, told EJP.
"The Chief Rabbi should have read one of the most respected Ottoman history scholars, American professor of Jewish origin Bernard Lewis who calls the claims unfounded."
"It is ironical that it was the Ottoman Empire that saved Spanish Jews from another genocide in Spain in the 1492 by shipping them to Turkey," Gultasli concluded.
The Armenian Diaspora in Europe could not be contacted by EJP on Thursday.
Denying genocide
Marc Knobel, a charge d’affaire for the CRIF Jewish umbrella organization in France stressed that there was not a single view on the debate in Israel; some scholars and politicians to not believe it was a genocide, but many in Israel disagreed.
It is just shameful that many people, and among them Jews, deny the Armenian genocide for despicable reasons
Marc Knobel | "The declarations of the Israeli Chief rabbi are honorable. It is totally respectuous of the Armenian tragedy to qualify these events as a genocide," he stressed.
Ara Toranian, Director of the of the New Armenia review, pointed out that the Jewish state’s position on the matter did not reflect the Jewish people position. "Israel has to endorse a ’real politik’ strategy vis-a-vis Turkey," he said. "I am very glad of these declarations from the chief rabbi especially because such a voice is authoritative," he added.
"The CRIF has a moderate and reasonable view on the matter," Knobel added, alluding to the organization engaged dialogue with Armenian groups. "Without comparing and equalizing each genocide, we can say that the mass extermination of Armenians, Jews Cambodians and Tutsis in Rwanda are genocides," he said. "without omitting the specificity of the Shoah."
"It is just shameful that many people, and among them Jews, deny the Armenian genocide for despicable reasons," Knobel concluded.
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