JERUSALEM — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar plans to submit a resolution for Israel to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide at a government meeting on June 25, 2026. Sa'ar stated that the proposed resolution will be brought before the Knesset for a vote after the government meeting.

"Recognizing the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people in the final years of the Ottoman Empire is both a moral and historical duty," Sa'ar said. "We must also firmly condemn any denial, minimization, or distortion of the historical truth." The Israeli Foreign Ministry stated that the Armenian Genocide remains the subject of an institutionalized campaign of denial and minimization, including a manipulative rewriting of history books, mainly by Turkey.

The Armenian Genocide began in April 1915 and led to the deaths of approximately 1.5 million Armenians. The Ottoman Empire's Committee of Union and Progress spearheaded the genocide. During this period, the Ottoman government arrested, deported, and murdered hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and leaders in Constantinople. An estimated 800,000 to 1.2 million Armenians were forced on death marches through the Syrian desert, and survivors of these marches were sentenced to concentration camps. Between 100,000 to 200,000 Armenian women and children were forcibly converted to Islam. The systematic destruction of Armenian heritage and culture also occurred.

The ethnic cleansing of survivors, carried out by Turkish nationalists, continued through the Turkish War of Independence from 1919 to 1923. As of 2026, 32 United Nations member states have formally recognized the Armenian Genocide, including the United States, Canada, Russia, and Germany. The Holy See and the European Parliament have also officially recognized it. Over 200 memorials commemorating the Armenian Genocide have been erected across 32 countries.