Turkey angered over Lithuanian president’s Armenian Genocide remarks

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.