President of Israel Reuven Rivlin does not characterize the events in Khojaly as genocide, head of the Jewish community of Armenia Rima Varzhapetyan said.

The head of Jewish community commented on the remarks made by Israeli leader at the UN General Assembly.

“First of all, I would like to stress, that the President of Israel does not characterize the events in Khojaly as genocide. He spoke about the fact of committed killings, which is an irrefutable fact, without mentioning who perpetrators were. It is well known, that in 1992 the Karabakhi forces left a humanitarian corridor, and the Khojaly inhabitants moved to Agdam, which was under the control of the Azerbaijani forces, where exactly they were slaughtered , which was the result of inner political games in Azerbaijan.

As is also well-known, that in order to get dividends in the field of propaganda, the authorities of modern Azerbaijan by all means are attempting to present those events as actions, undertaken by the Karabakhi forces. I can not exclude that the relations of Azerbaijan and Israel, as well as the Azerbaijani propaganda played some role in the fact, that the President of Israel made a reference to Khojaly, without revealing details. However, had one carefully watched the speech by the President Rivlin, it would be noticed, that he talked about the condemnation of not only acts of genocide, but also all expressions of violence, committed against groups of persons on political grounds.

Nevertheless I believe, that for the citizens of Armenia and Armenians in Diaspora the pivotal component of Israel’s President speech is the section on the slaughter of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Not only does the President characterize those events as genocide, but he also stresses the connectivity between the indifference towards those events and the tragic events happening around the globe afterwards. President Rivlin mentions the fact of 100 years of denial, stressing that in the State of Israel no one denies what occurred. This is an unprecedented progress, when Israel is on the threshold of an unconditional recognition of the fact of the Armenian genocide, which, I am sure, will happen in the near future” .