On April 24, the world marked the 103rdanniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenians and the displacement of millions more in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. Leaders from many of our staunchest allies issued statements commemorating the genocide, vowing it will never happen again. In our community, tens of thousands of descendants of genocide survivors and others marched through the streets of Los Angeles, a living testament to the resilience of the Armenian people.

Yet in our nation’s capital, the White House and Congress were once again sadly silent, failing to properly recognize the genocide. Unfortunately, this is nothing new – not since Ronald Reagan in 1981 has an American President referred to the attempted extermination of the Armenian people as a “genocide.”

Rafael Lemkin, who studied the Armenian Genocide and believed that the world needed a new word to capture the magnitude of eliminating a whole group of people, coined the term genocide. With recent atrocities against the Rohingya in Burma, the genocide in Darfur, and many more, the phrase remains horrifically relevant today.

More than a century after the Armenian Genocide, it is our solemn responsibility to commemorate it, and also to educate Americans and the world about the crime of genocide, whether it occurred today or a century ago.

A recent poll of Americans found that the details of the Holocaust are increasingly fading from memory, particularly among younger generations. Two-thirds of millennials polled do not know what Auschwitz is, and many others of all ages couldn’t answer basic questions about the Holocaust. As a Jewish-American who lost countless family members in the Holocaust, I find these results horrifying. There is no doubt that public understanding of the Armenian Genocide is far lower, and that’s due in part to the silence of those who should be leading the conversation about it.

How many Americans know of the death marches, during which tens of thousands of Armenians were marched across deserts, and the old, the young, and the sick who were killed or discarded? How many know of the concentration camps in Deir ez-Zor, where Armenians were tortured, raped, and starved in the desert?

How many Americans know that in the years after the genocide, through the Near East Relief effort, the generosity of the American people saved the lives of thousands of survivors and helped secure the future of the Armenian people? Finally, how many Americans know that the Congress and the President have refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, intimidated into silence by Turkey?

Turkey has invested heavily in the cause of denial, and our silence is not only shameful, but also pathetic. Though Turkey remains a member of NATO, under the autocratic and repressive rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in virtually every significant respect Turkey has worked against critical U.S. interests and security.

In Northern Syria, where the United States has worked closely with partners to devastate ISIS, Turkey has consistently prioritized its own interests, even launching a military offensive into Syria that threatens our allied forces and even our own soldiers. Faced with U.S. statements that we will defend our forces and interests in Northern Syria, Erdogan threatened the United States with an “Ottoman Slap.”

U.S. citizens have also been victims of Erodgan’s crackdown on free speech and free expression in the wake of the failed 2016 coup. Last year, Erdogan’s security detail brutally assaulted peaceful protestors in Washington, D.C. Charges against 11 of the 15 Turkish nationals charged have been dropped, and there is little indication that Turkey will pay any diplomatic price for this attack.

These are not the actions of an ally – they are the actions of a nation that feels emboldened to act with indifference to the United States. And who can blame them? For over a quarter century, Presidents and congresses of both parties have been bullied into genocide denial for fear Turkey will withdraw its already transactional and fleeting cooperation. Shame on Turkey and those who deny the historic fact of the Armenian Genocide.

And if we persist in being complicit, shame on us.