Challenging 90 years of institutionalized denial of the massacre and deportation of the Ottoman Empire's indigenous Armenian community during WWI, tens of thousands of Turkish intellectuals, academics, writers, journalists and dissidents have apologized online for the “Great Catastrophe.” One of two examples of man's inhumanity to man that prompted Raphael Lemkin to coin the term “Genocide” in 1943, Nova Scotia Scott sets the scene for an unprecedented initiative that has sparked a lively discussion across the globe which ranges from applause to outrage. Three Turkish academics and one writer have violated Turkey’s biggest taboo by issuing a public apology for the mass killings suffered by Armenians beginning in 1915. In the recent past, Turkey has prosecuted public figures who dare even to admit that the genocide happened […] Predictably, ultra-nationalists have denounced the apology, calling it a “betrayal” and “an insult to the Turkish nation”. After the initiative was approved by 200 Turkish intellectuals, the apology was launched at http://www.ozurdiliyoruz.com for others to sign. One of the signatories, Ziya Meral, explains on Denizens’ Corner why he signed. [A]s a Turk, who was born in 70’ies, I am in no way legally or criminally responsible for acts committed by distant actors…. Sure, I did not exist when Armenians were marched to their deaths, but I am still a member of the community in which such events took place, thus still have a moral responsibility to act, no matter how limited my acts can be. I remember crying for hours in [Armenia’s capital] Yerevan, with no theoretical basis to help me to process the trauma of being confronted with skeletons of a past of which I had no clue. That night I stood in front of a group of Armenians, asking them to forgive me, not for the acts as such, but for my personal failure of not knowing, not caring, and not hearing their cries. That is my personal moral failure, and for that I am sorry. That sorrow led me to do a Masters degree dealing with reconciliation and memory issues, and now a PhD on the subject. Another Turkish blogger, Ayse Erin, explains why she put her name to the apology. I can only applaud such an initiative but do acknowledge that the way to reach real understanding and reconciliation between the two nations has been extremely slow and full of denials during the last 90 years. There is still a lot to do, and if signing the online petition can help taking a step forward, I have no other choice than taking action and start with an apology. Blogging at the Istanbulian, Turkish journalist Emre Kizilkaya doesn’t endorse the move. Even if all Turks, without any exception, of the early 20th century had killed all the Armenians of the time, why should the grandchildren of the killers make an apology to the grandchildren of the victims? …the apology campaign has turned out to be a joke at some point, considering the people who has [sic] signed the letter. Doesn't the signature of Peter Gabriel, the Genesis singer, got a sublime symbolic quality? An Englishman apologizes to the Armenians for a Turkish crime? Favoring the establishment of a joint Armenian-Turkish historical commission instead, Talk Turkey is also unimpressed by the petition and especially the counter response to the initiative. To apologize or not to apologize… or to be apologized to… […] But to counter the recent popularity of the signature campaign, with ‘we're not apologizing,’ or yet another one insisting it's the Armenians who should be apologizing, may not have been the smartest thing to do. It only works to de-unify the Turks and the Turkish people. Do we really think the world is going to determine our worthiness by comparing the two signature campaigns, and public opinion will be swayed by whichever side gets the most signatures? The Nevin Politology is angry with the apology and instead recalls the assassinations of Turkish diplomats by Armenian militants in the 1970s and 80s. […] My father was a UN diplomat and we lived in fear while living abroad for so many years. Armenian terrorists killed over 200 innocent diplomats, and their wives, children, and friends. While living in Canada, I had to go to school under police protection. We had police waiting in front of our home 24/7. My family received threatening phone calls, threatening letters, insults, hate, hate, and lots of lots of hate. Who will take back those year? […] The Armenian reaction is mixed too. Calling the apology a “good first step, but not good enough,” Armenian-American columnist Harut Sassounian summarizes the U.S.-Armenian Diaspora's response to the initiative on the Huffington Post.