A senior State Department official offered something close to an apology for the U.S. response to a failed coup attempt in Turkey, as he worked to ease tensions with a crucial ally.

“The truth is I don’t think that many of us fully understood — or maybe we didn’t communicate that we understood — the depth of feeling and emotion in Turkey for the events of July,” Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday night. “This was a dagger aimed at the heart of the Turkish state — and at the Turkish people.”