Turkey angered over Lithuanian leader's Armenian Genocide remarks

December 5, 2019 - 13:05 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Lithuanian Ambassador to Turkey was summoned by Ankara following Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda's statement that "Turkey carried out the Genocide of Armenians", LRT reports.

However, Turkey did not lodge a formal protest.

Nausėda said Lithuania recognizes that Turkey is a NATO ally that carried out the genocide of Armenians, during an interview with the Lithuanian news website Delfi.lt.

The Lithuanian president said "the US Congress has recently recognized [the Genocide] as well," adding rhetorically, whether one could "imagine a situation when a NATO member state would not recognize the Holocaust?"

The meeting of Lithuanian Ambassador Audrius Bruzga and Aylin Tashan, a representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, took place in the second half of November, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry told BNS.

Turkey summons ambassadors every time a country leader or parliament recognizes or mentions the Armenian Genocide.

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.