YEREVAN (Armenpress) — A delegation, headed by Israeli Minister of Agriculture Orit Noked, visited Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex, where the minister laid a wreath and paid tribute to the memory of the innocent victims. Noked, accompanied by Armenian Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan and Director of Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Hayk Demoyan, also visited the museum-institute and familiarized herself with the exhibits.
“As a woman, as a Jew and as a human being, I am shocked at what I see in the photos, I am shocked at the murders of innocent Armenian fami- lies,” Noked wrote in the Commemoration Book of the museum- institute. The minister of agriculture watered the fir-tree she had already planted in the Memorial Park.
Noked sees similarities between the destinies of the Armenians and the Jews. “We are like each other with our history, character, with our small number of population and having commu- nities abroad,” she said.
There is an Armenian community of about 15,000 in Israel.
More than 20 countries have recog- nized and condemned the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turkey in early 20th century. Israel is not yet among those countries. The issue of the Armenian Genocide was first raised in Knesset in 2007. Parallels are very often drawn between the Armenian Genocide and Holocaust.
