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History rarely enters international politics in isolation. More often, it arrives accompanied by shifting alliances, changing strategic calculations and evolving national interests.
Israel's move to recognise the Armenian Genocide should therefore be understood not merely as a historical declaration, but as a geopolitical act whose implications extend far beyond the past.
Its significance lies not only in what has been recognised, but in when the recognition has been advanced.
The decision comes as Israel faces unprecedented international scrutiny over the war in Gaza, including proceedings before the International Court of Justice, actions by the International Criminal Court concerning senior Israeli leaders, and growing diplomatic isolation across parts of the international community. Israel firmly rejects these allegations, maintaining that it is exercising its legitimate right of self-defence against Hamas and acting within the framework of international law.
No final judicial determination has been reached.
Whether coincidence or calculation, however, the timing inevitably raises difficult questions.
As someone who has spent more than four decades in diplomacy, international organisations and global business - and who has worked extensively across Türkiye, Israel, Armenia and Azerbaijan - I cannot view this simply as another chapter in a century-old historical dispute.
It is about something much larger.
It is about the uneasy relationship between history, morality and power.
When I joined the Turkish Foreign Ministry in the early 1980s, the Armenian issue was among the most sensitive files confronting Turkish diplomacy.
For my generation, it was never simply an academic debate.
It was profoundly personal.
We belonged to a diplomatic corps living under the constant shadow of terrorism. ASALA and other Armenian militant organisations systematically targeted Turkish diplomats across Europe, North America and Australia. Ambassadors, counsellors, attachés and members of their families became victims of a campaign of political violence that profoundly shaped an entire generation of Turkish diplomats.
Some of my colleagues never returned home.
While serving in Paris, I experienced that atmosphere first-hand.
Every journey to work required heightened vigilance. Changing routes became routine. Checking vehicles became instinctive.
The possibility of being targeted simply because one represented Türkiye was part of everyday professional life.
Those years taught me a lesson that has remained with me ever since. Diplomats devote their careers to preventing conflicts. Yet they are often called upon to defend history as much as national interests.
That experience made me deeply cautious about any attempt by governments to legislate historical memory rather than encourage honest historical inquiry.
History becomes dangerous when human suffering is reduced to political narratives.
My career also allowed me to encounter very different memories of tragedy.
I have visited Israel many times.
I have spent long hours at Yad Vashem, witnessing how profoundly the Holocaust shapes Israel's national consciousness.
I have travelled extensively across Azerbaijan, speaking with survivors of the Khojaly massacre and families displaced during decades of conflict over Karabakh.
I have studied the forced displacement of millions of Ottoman Muslims during the Balkan Wars and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
I have also participated in numerous dialogues involving Turkish, Armenian and international diplomats, scholars and civil society representatives, convinced that lasting reconciliation begins not with accusation but with listening.
Those experiences left me with one enduring conviction.
Human suffering cannot be ranked.
Armenian suffering is real.
The Holocaust is real.
Khojaly is real.
The suffering of civilians in Gaza is real.
The mass displacement of Ottoman Muslims from the Balkans is real.
Recognising one tragedy should never require diminishing another.
No nation possesses a monopoly on history's grief.
From Baku, Israel's cabinet-backed move is viewed through a strategic prism very different from that of Washington, Brussels or Jerusalem.
For Azerbaijan, this debate is not primarily about 1915.
It is about the regional order emerging after the Second Karabakh War.
Azerbaijan is simultaneously seeking to consolidate peace negotiations with Armenia, preserve its unique strategic alliance with Türkiye and deepen one of its closest security partnerships with Israel.
Few countries therefore have more at stake in preventing a further deterioration in Turkish-Israeli relations.
The strategic triangle linking Ankara, Baku and Jerusalem has long contributed to regional energy security, defence cooperation and a broader balance of power in a highly volatile neighbourhood.
Any weakening of one side inevitably affects the others.
Equally important, the South Caucasus today may possess its greatest opportunity for reconciliation in decades.
Transport corridors. Energy infrastructure. Regional trade. Investment. Connectivity between Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.
All have the potential to transform the region's economic geography.
Reopening historical battlefields risks undermining precisely the diplomatic environment needed to secure that future.
Israel avoided formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide for more than seven decades.
Partly because of its strategic relationship with Türkiye.
Partly because many Israeli leaders believed that the Holocaust occupied a unique place in Jewish historical consciousness.
Today, those geopolitical constraints have largely disappeared.
That naturally invites another question.
If this recognition represents an enduring moral obligation, why did it take more than a century?
If changing geopolitical realities helped shape the decision, then history risks becoming another instrument of contemporary statecraft.
That serves neither historical understanding nor reconciliation.
History should illuminate diplomacy - not become another weapon within it.
An increasing number of national parliaments now pass resolutions on historical events.
I remain unconvinced that this is the wisest approach.
Parliaments legislate.
Courts interpret law.
Historians investigate history.
These are distinct responsibilities.
Honest historical understanding evolves as archives become accessible, evidence expands and scholarship advances.
Political institutions are entitled to express moral and legal positions.
They should nevertheless exercise caution before presenting politically contested historical questions as permanently settled through legislative votes.
History deserves intellectual freedom rather than political decree.
International politics rarely offers permanent enemies.
Türkiye was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel.
For decades, the two countries maintained one of the closest strategic partnerships in the Middle East, encompassing defence, intelligence cooperation, trade and regional security.
Today, relations have deteriorated dramatically.
Tomorrow, they may improve.
The same is true of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Peace remains fragile.
Yet geography cannot be negotiated away.
Neither can shared interests.
Energy security. Transport corridors. Trade. Climate resilience. Investment. Economic development.
These realities will outlast today's political disputes.
Statesmanship therefore requires ensuring that today's rhetoric does not destroy tomorrow's diplomacy.
First, historical tragedies should never become instruments of contemporary geopolitical competition.
Second, no people possesses a monopoly on suffering. The tragedies experienced by Armenians, Jews, Azerbaijanis, Bosniaks, Palestinians, Ottoman Muslims and many others all form part of humanity's collective historical memory.
Third, historical questions should primarily remain the domain of independent scholarship rather than parliamentary politics. Governments may legitimately express positions, but they should avoid transforming history into another arena of geopolitical confrontation.
Fourth, lasting peace in the South Caucasus requires acknowledging competing historical memories without allowing them to imprison the future. Economic integration, transport connectivity and regional cooperation offer a more promising foundation for peace than competing narratives of victimhood.
Finally, genuine leadership lies not in mobilising history against today's adversaries, but in drawing lessons from history to prevent tomorrow's conflicts.
After more than seventy years of life - and over four decades working across Türkiye, Europe, the Middle East, Israel, the Caucasus and Central Asia - I have reached one simple conclusion.
Memory is sacred.
But the politicisation of memory is profoundly dangerous.
History should teach humility rather than vengeance.
It should encourage reconciliation rather than permanent hostility.
The peoples of Türkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Israel will continue to inhabit the same strategic neighbourhood.
Their future will ultimately be shaped not by how effectively they weaponise the past, but by whether they possess the wisdom to rise above it.
History should never become diplomatic ammunition. Its purpose is to illuminate the present, not imprison the future.
The true test of statesmanship is not whether leaders can mobilise the past, but whether they possess the wisdom to ensure that the past does not dictate the future.
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