Asserting that the Ottoman empire perpetrated a genocide of its Armenian citizens in 1915 remains prohibited under Turkey’s penal code. Nevertheless, this response makes Netanyahu the first Israeli head of government to publicly acknowledge the Armenian genocide. But Israel has traditionally maintained good relations with Turkey, which was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel back in 1949. The refusal to recognise the Armenian genocide also reflects Israel’s desire for a monopoly on the crime of genocide. Recognising the Armenian genocide, for him, amounts to downplaying his own crimes in Gaza.