Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Israel on Tuesday after the Israeli government approved a move to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, accusing Jerusalem of slandering Turkey while pointing to the war in Gaza.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Ankara, Erdogan said Turkey did not take Israel’s accusations seriously. “We pay absolutely no attention to the slanders against our country by this criminal network, which has the blood of 73,000 innocent people of Gaza, mostly children and women, on its hands,” he said, citing a figure that Israel does not accept.

Erdogan also rejected the genocide label against Ottoman-era Turkey. “Our history is free from genocide, massacres, oppression and colonialism,” he said. He added that Turkey’s past was marked by “justice and kindness,” saying the country had helped the oppressed and “gave shelter to those who fled the Inquisition and Nazi persecution.”

The comments came two days after Israel’s cabinet unanimously approved Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s proposal to recognize the Armenian Genocide. The move still requires Knesset approval, but Sa’ar said after the cabinet vote that “it is never too late to do the right thing,” calling recognition a moral duty for the Jewish state.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry had already condemned the Israeli decision as politically motivated, accusing Israel of trying to distract from Gaza and legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice. Israel had avoided formal recognition for years, partly because of relations with Turkey, but ties have collapsed sharply under Erdogan.

The Armenian Genocide began in 1915, when Ottoman authorities arrested, deported and killed Armenian community leaders before launching mass deportations and death marches. Historians estimate that about 1.5 million Armenians were killed. Turkey continues to reject the genocide label, though 32 countries have recognized it.