Israeli Knesset Speaker said Tuesday that Israel has an obligation to remember the murder of more than a million Armenians at the hands of the Turks more than a hundred years ago, The Jerusalem Post reported.


Making the comment at a Knesset discussion of the Armenian genocide Reuven Rivlin mentioned in the meantime that the issue should not be turned into an attack on the Turkish government.


Speaking a day before State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss was scheduled to release a report on Israel’s interception of Turkish ships bound for the Gaza Strip which led to a diplomatic crisis between the countries, Rivlin insisted that the discussion of the Armenian genocide was not politically motivated.

"We have an ethical obligation to remember that a million Armenians were killed. It is forbidden to make the issue political. Our charges are not pointed at the Turkish regime today. We must make our voices heard when other nations are targeted for destruction," Rivlin stated.

"Those who drafted the Final Solution for the Jews figured the world would be silent as they were when the Armenians were murdered. The Knesset cannot ignore this episode that is factual. We cannot forgive nations who ignore our disaster and we cannot ignore the disasters of others," the Knesset speaker added.