On April 26, President of Israel Reuven Rivlin received representatives of the Armenian community, who reprehended the President for not recognizing the Armenian Genocide perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire, NEWS.am reports.

Rivlin used the terms ��?mass killings’ and ��?Armenian tragedy’ to describe the events. “It is our moral duty to point out the facts, however they may be. We must not ignore them. The Armenian nation became the first victim of modern mass killings. We don’t intend to blame a specific country for that, but we express our solidarity with the victims of the massacres.

After the horrors of the Holocaust, it is the human and moral duty of us Jews to respect the memory of the victims of the Armenian nation’s tragedy. I take pride in receiving you all here at the presidential residence so that I can mark this day with you,” Rivlin told the representatives of the Armenian community, who were invited to meet with the President for the first time on this occasion.

“Representative of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Archbishop Aris Shirvanian expressed his disappointment with the fact that Israel isn’t describing the killings of the Armenians with the term ��?genocide’,” as stated in the press release issued by the press service of the President of Israel. “The President declared that he would take notice of the criticism and that he believes the Israeli government should work harder to raise the issue of the killings of the Armenians. He stressed the importance of discussing the issue,” as stated in the press release.

On April 24, an Israeli delegation consisting of two Members of Parliament and Israel’s Ambassador to Armenia represented Israel at the events dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide held in Yerevan. One of the Members of Parliament, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nachman Shai urged his compatriots to recognize the Armenian Genocide. “That is our basic duty. We must not think twice.”