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A report from the German consul in Aleppo to his Reichskanzler at that time would conclude by stating that the Turkish government would never “be able to deny responsibility for all that has happened.”

And yet it did. And yet it still does.

As Armenians, we are often quick to point out that the Genocide was committed by the Ottoman Turks. A century after this virulent denial, why are we so careful about this nomenclature? I believe that we have been careful not to mention Turkey because we want the current state to have a way out. To say that the decision to eliminate our ancestors was confined to this moment of history.

Turkey cannot share the suffering of Armenians — nothing it has experienced can compare to this catastrophic loss

Today, 100 years after the horrible events of April 24, 1915, let us no longer obfuscate. When the invitation comes from the Turkish Prime Minister, as it did earlier this year, to “contribute to a new beginning” and to believe that “Turkey shares the suffering of Armenians,” let us be clear.

Turkey cannot share the suffering of Armenians — nothing it has experienced can compare to this catastrophic loss. It can try to understand it. It can feel sorry about it. It can apologize for it. But that nagging little word — “IT” — is precisely what Turkey has refused to acknowledge.

No Turk alive today can be held directly responsible for the crime of Genocide committed by the Ottoman Regime. But with each passing day that the current Turkish state denies this atrocity, it is committing its own catalogue of horrors.

This has exacerbated the pain of Armenians and — in its own way — created a different kind of pain for Turks today. The pain of not being able to express a true and complete sense of compassion. The pain of seeing a fellow human being suffer, and not fully understanding — at some deep level — how actions are contributing to that suffering.