Armenia would welcome the recognition of the Armenian genocide, but it is not a precondition to develop closer ties with Israel, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigor Hovhannisyan said in an interview to Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. 

“We know that geopolitical aspirations often interfere with moral imperatives,” Hovhannisyan said. “And we also sometimes have to deal with that.”

Asked whether he was disappointed that Israel has not recognized the Armenian Genocide, he distinguished between his own personal opinion and that of the foreign ministry.

As the “offspring of refugees who survived the genocide,” Hovhannisyan said he was personally disappointed, though “that is not the position of the foreign ministry or the government.”

According to him, for over 25 years of Armenian independence from the Soviet Union, “the pace of recognition has been impressive,” with “thousands of thousands of regional governments” and some 40 countries having done so.