It doesn't have to be this way. I think that our attitude toward such a dreadful historic event cannot be dictated by our friendly relations with Turkey, even though that relationship is particularly important to me as one who worked so hard to develop it. I also see the contradiction between the political track and the ethical one. Something happened that cannot be defined except as genocide. One-and-a-half million people disappeared. It wasn't negligence, it was deliberate. I do not think that the government has to take an official decision on the issue, but we must clarify to the Turks that we cannot accept their political demands to ignore a historical event. An ethical stand cannot be dictated by political needs--these are two separate tracks.

(Beilin quoted by Lilly Galili, "A Holocaust By Any Other Name," Ha'aretz, 24 April 2000.)