Turkish-Armenian lawmaker Garo Paylan in a statement released on the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide called on Ankara "to deal with matters of conscience."

“As long as Turkey refuses to deal with matters of conscience at home, it cannot have a real opening with Armenia,” said Paylan, an opposition lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP.

“The way for these two nations to find peace will begin with facing this great catastrophe.”

Paylan, one of three Armenian members of the Turkish parliament who last week tabled a motion calling for an investigation of the century-old crime, said in the statement: “Let us not forget that every crime that goes unpunished leads to a repetition of the crime.”

102 years have passed since the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923.