With the invitation of His Holiness and Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II, chief rabbi Yona Metsger and his Israeli delegation visited Armenia on Tuesday. They went to the Genocide museum, planted a tree and placed a bouquet near the monument dedicated to the victims of the Genocide.
After touring the museum and lighting a candle near the symbolic gravestone, the rabbi wrote some words in the museum’s memoir. At the time all the guests were waiting with anticipation. Owner of the museum Lavrenti Barseghyan believes that it is possible that one day Jews will recognize the Armenian Genocide. “There is no other nation that sympathizes with the Jewish people than the Armenians. I express my condolences to the thousands of Armenians that were killed during the genocide just for being Armenian. I share your pain. May their spirits help the Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora. May your country flourish.” These were the words written by Y. Metsger. The rabbi then presented the museum the Israeli flag “in memory of the victims of the tragedy”. Although the chief rabbi did not mention the word “genocide”, however, he assured us that he uses “that term”.
“Don’t pay attention to international political relations. We, as leaders of two spiritual communities, are obligated to remind our people about the horrible killings and respect the memory of the victims. The photographs and documents that we saw are enough. We did not just cry for the sake of it. In Israel, the church and the state are separate from each other. We are not involved in state issues, however we do have our thoughts and feelings,” said Y. Metsger.
Metsger’s translator was member of the delegation, MP of the Israeli parliament and president of the Armenian-Israeli council Yuri Shtern. “Our approach is strictly political. We have great relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey-as a matter of fact, Turkey is one of our major colleagues. However, that does not give us the right to change the past. I hope that we will be able to have good relations with Armenia. This visit is the beginning of strengthening ties with Armenia and I have also said this to our colleagues from neighboring countries,” said the MP. Shtern stated that he was one of the Jews that believe that they have no right to deny the historical facts of any nation based on any circumstances. According to Y. Shtern, the Armenian Genocide is one of the most horrible tragedies of the 20th century. He does not consider it a casualty that Hitler claimed that the world does not pay attention to the Armenian Genocide and this has served as a “means” for new murderers to eliminate one third of the Jewish people. “I hope that these facts will be accepted by both our and other countries. I believe that the Turkish government will soon have to recognize the genocide because Europe has set its prerequisites and one of them is recognition,” said the MP.
After the prayer said by Catholicos of All Armenians at the monument dedicated to the victims of genocide, Yona Metsger recited the prayer that the Jews recite in memory of the victims of the Holocaust but he said it in memory of the Armenians. In addition, Y. Shtern asked “168 hours” not to use the “Armenian Holocaust” term due to the fact that the tragedies of both nations differ and can not be compared with one another. Whereas 1.5 million people have died during the Armenian Genocide, 6 million have died during the Jewish Holocaust.
President of the World Armenian Congress Ara Abrahamyan had helped organize the Israeli delegation’s visit to Armenia. Abrahamyan evaluated the chief rabbi’s visit to Armenia as a historical event. By establishing good relations between Armenia and Israel, Abrahamyan plans on making both countries cooperate. In his words, the next step is to unite Armenian and Israeli intellectuals.
P.S. The Armenian Genocide Museum presented the Israeli delegation with literature in plastic bags with Arabic letters on it.