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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Monday that Yerevan would not respond to Israel's recognition of the 1915 events as genocide, cautioning that avoiding the "weaponization" of the issue is in Armenia's core interest.
Speaking at a briefing, Pashinyan said Armenia sees no need to engage with the Israeli Cabinet's decision, which was approved unanimously on Sunday on a proposal by Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
The move marked a sharp reversal of decades of Israeli policy that had deliberately withheld the designation, largely to preserve diplomatic ties with Türkiye.
Pashinyan's call for restraint stands in contrast to the sharp reaction from Ankara. Türkiye's Foreign Ministry said Monday that Israel was seeking "to cover up its own crimes" through what it called a politically motivated decision, pointing to Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza and the genocide proceedings it faces at the International Court of Justice.
Türkiye rejects the genocide characterization of the 1915 events, describing them as a wartime tragedy in which both Armenians and Turks lost their lives.
Türkiye has long proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Türkiye, Armenia and the international community to examine the 1915 events, arguing that the matter should not be resolved through unilateral political decisions by foreign governments. That position remains unchanged following Israel's vote.
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