Statement from CCAF
The Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) welcomes the historic decision of the State of Israel to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
This gesture, awaited for many years, is a major step forward in establishing the historical truth in the face of pressure, intimidation and state negationism that Turkey has built as a pillar of its foreign policy for more than a century.
This recognition also represents an indispensable moral reparation for the 1.5 million victims of the First Genocide of the Twentieth Century, as well as their descendants, who have, for more than a hundred years, continued to defend the memory of the lost, justice and truth.
This fight is still a hot news. Unfortunately, the extermination and erasure of Armenians from their ancestral lands is not the only past. The ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh, carried out by Azerbaijan in 2023 with Turkey’s active support, has reminded that pant-Turkist ideology and hate policies continue to pose an existential threat to the Armenian people.
It was particularly important that the State of Israel, born from the ashes of the Shoah and carrying a universal memory of extermination, chose to break with the considerations of realpolitik to name this crime by its name. As the Israeli Foreign Minister stated, “It’s never too late to do right.” “This sentence is evident: silence and denial never preserve peace; on the contrary, they encourage the repetition of crimes.”
By this decision, Israel renews with the values of justice, truth, and responsibility that presided over its birth. Recognizing the genocide of the Armenians, he recalls that the memory of the victims could not be subordinated to the diplomatic interests of the moment.
The CCAF finally forms the wish that this historic decision leads Turkey to, in turn, engage in real work of truth. It is time for Ankara to stop making itself the political heir to the negationism of young Turkish leaders, renounce glorifying those responsible for the genocide and finally open the way for a reconciliation based on recognition of facts, justice and respect for the memory of the victims.
The recognition of truth is directed against no people. It is, on the contrary, the essential condition for sustainable peace between nations and the prevention of crimes of tomorrow.
CCAF National Office
On 28/06/2026
