“I think it is definitely fitting that the Israeli government formally recognize the Holocaust perpetrated against the Armenian people,” Erdan, Israel’s environmental affairs minister said, AFP reported.

Israel has long avoided recognizing the mass killings of Armenians as genocide, in respect to already strained ties with Turkey which feels the recognition of a genocide as an insult and claims that mass loss of life was seen on both sides. Meanwhile,  Israeli officials and Turkish analysts are now raising the possibility that Tel Aviv may retaliate either by recognizing Armenian Genocide

Relations with turkey have been tense since  Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)  boarded the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in a flotilla aimed at breaking Israel’s siege on Gaza in May 2010, leaving nine pro-Palestinian activists dead. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel after that incident.

Turkey, which in the past was very friendly with Israel, has elected a government with an increasingly worsening stance toward Israel, as well as increasing support for Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists.

Armenia claims about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in the 1915 killings during WW1.

Yigal Palmor, a spokesman at Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said Israel’s formal position on the Armenian killings remained that the issue “must be decided by historians and not be subject to political deliberation., ” Reuters reported.