Armenia announced on Friday it was recognising the State of Palestine, the latest country to do so amid the war in Gaza, and said it was against “violence towards the civilian population”.
Amid the war between Israel and Hamas, several countries have recognised the State of Palestine, a move strongly objected to by Israeli authorities.
“Reaffirming its commitment to international law, equality of nations, sovereignty and peaceful coexistence, the Republic of Armenia recognises the State of Palestine,” Yerevan said.
Armenia said it was “genuinely interested in establishing long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Yerevan, itself plagued by decades of conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan, condemned Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.
“Armenia condemns the use of civilian infrastructure as shields during armed conflicts and violence towards the civilian population,” the ministry said.
It also condemned Hamas for the “detention of civilian individuals” and said it “joins the international community in calling for their release.”
Shortly after the former Soviet republic announced its recognition, Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned its ambassador to Yerevan.
“Following Armenia’s recognition of the Palestinian State, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Armenian Ambassador to Israel and issued a strong rebuke to him,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian Authority official, welcomed the move.
“This is a victory for our Palestinian people’s struggle for rights, justice, legitimacy and liberation and freedom,” al-Sheikh said on social media.
“Thank you to our friend Armenia.”
The Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,194 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also took 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, 41 of whom the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 37,431 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the regional health ministry.
Israel is a major arms supplier to Armenia’s arch-enemy neighbour Azerbaijan, with which Yerevan has a decades-old territorial dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Baku recaptured from Armenian separatists last year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)