Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a carefully prepared declaration on the 99th anniversary of the Armenian deportation and massacres of 1915, expressing his sincere condolences to the descendants of the massacred Armenians. This was the first-ever official declaration on the part of the head of government of Turkey. He was not trying to negate the tragedy, not trying to justify the events but issued a very balanced, carefully written text acknowledging the terrible losses the Armenian population endured throughout the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire.

For years, there was heavy pressure on Turkey on the part of the democratic countries to stop negating what was apparent: the disappearance of almost an entire indigenous population in what is now eastern Turkey. The deportations and massacres of the largely civilian Armenian population cannot be explained, let alone be justified by the situation induced by World War I. Trying to minimize the magnitude of this tragedy is impossible, despite the official historiography deliberately ignoring the event.

The average Turk has practically no genuine information about the reality of 1915. Advocating that a joint committee of historians coming together to review the Ottoman archives is at best wishful thinking because a large majority of historians all around the world have already classified the developments as being a "genocide" and those historians, a small minority, thinking that such a categorization erroneous for various reasons are openly ostracized.

Therefore, the appeal of the Turkish prime minister (which is not new) to form an independent panel of historians that would shed a light on the 1915 events will probably never be implemented. But the real issue is not to bring together emeritus historians. Instead, the whole official Turkish historiography of World War I should be rewritten because the very large majority of public opinion is absolutely convinced the events are "falsified" by Western sources and there has been no bigger tragedy in eastern Anatolia than, for instance, the Balkans.

On the other hand, Turkey's new position on this issue is extremely important in the sense that the Republic, aiming at establishing a "Turkishness" that should be joyously espoused by every Turkish citizen, for a first time, recognizes diversity in a tangible manner.
The change started with the government's approach to the Kurdish issue and there is a domino effect that became visible. The Republic may stay unified, however cultural, linguistic and religious differences should be given a very large degree of freedom if the country is to remain solidly pluralistic and democratic.

In that sense, a form of reconciliation should first be undertaken between Turkish Armenians and the Republic. This is not going to be easy because the Armenian minority living in Turkey has almost interiorized the terrible tragedy, preferring never to discuss it in public.

This is the first time in Turkey since perhaps its foundation that taboos are dismantled and openly discussed. There will be lots of derailing throughout this debate, blunt denial and reactionary jingoist oppositional stances will be taken. However, by taking a moral position and openly pointing at the human dimension of the Armenian issue, the prime minister unclenched a long-awaited dynamic in Turkish society. This dynamic aspect of the official declaration has not yet been given enough credit, but, over time, it will very likely be remembered for what it really is: a revolutionary turning point in state politics vis à vis its citizens.