Lithuania Seimas president visits Armenian Genocide memorial

October 5, 2019 - 12:45 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - President of Lithuania's Seimas Viktoras Pranckietis visited the Armenian Genocide memorial in Yerevan on Friday, October 4.

Pranckietis was accompanied by the Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Lena Nazaryan.

The Lithuanian lawmaker put a wreath at the memorial and honored the memory of the victims with a moment of silence.

He also toured the Armenian Genocide Memorial-Institute and left a note in the book of honorary guests: "We know, We remember, we mourn."

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.