TEL AVIV (Armenpress) — Israeli politician Yair Lapid, the founder of Yesh Atid political party called on the authorities of his country to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The Israeli politician’s proposal comes as Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had made some harsh statements against Israel regarding the metal detectors at the entrances to the al Aksa mosque compound in Jerusalem.
“Turkey needs to know they cannot continue to kick Israel, and Israel will come back and ask for more. The time has come to stop ingratiating ourselves to the Turks, who every time come and kick us harder. We need to say, ‘Okay, we understand, now we have to run our own policy: from now on we support the establishment of an independent Kurdish state, we need to recognize the Armenian Genocide, we need to do all the things that we didn’t do when we had good relations with Turkey, because we don’t, and we will not have in the future,” he said, according to Jerusalem Post.
Israel decided to place metal detectors at the entrance of the al Aksa mosque compound in Jerusalem. The move sparked an intense negative response internationally, which prompted Israel to remove the detectors. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan commented on the move, saying the Israeli side is attempting to take the al Aksa mosque away from Muslims. He called on the entire Muslim world to protect the mosque, and said that the Israeli soldiers “are polluting the area with their boots.”
Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the Turkish president’s statement, saying “Erdogan is the last person who can give Israel an advice.”
