Baltic News Service
March 2, 2007 Friday 3:06 PM EET

LITHUANIAN, TURKISH PARLIAMENTARIANS TO NEGOTIATE COOPERATION
DEVELOPMENT

VILNIUS Mar 02

A group of Lithuanian parliamentarians to leave to Ankara on Sunday
where they will discuss the cooperation development possibilities
with representatives of Turkish parliament.

The Lithuanian parliament’s board will send for the four-day visit to
Turkey deputy parliamentary speaker, chairman of the European Affairs
Committee, Andrius Kubilius, Foreign Affairs Committee’s Chairman
Justinas Karosas and member of this committee Petras Austrevicius,
Chairman of Human Rights Commitee Arminas Lydeka.

The members of the parliament go to Ankara invited by Turkish
Parliamentary Speaker Bulento Arinco, the parliamentary department of
public relations has reported.

Meetings with Integration to European Union and Foreign Affairs
Committees are scheduled during the stay.

The relations of Lithuania and Turkey were toppled when Lithuanian
parliament passed a resolution in late 2005 by which Turkey was urged
to acknowledge having carried out genocide of the Armenian nation
almost a century ago. As a reaction to this, Turkey responded with a
diplomatic demarche – Lithuanian Ambassador to Ankara Vytautas
Nauduzas had been called to Turkish Foreign Ministry and warned that
the resolution will worsen bilateral relations of Lithuania and
Turkey.

In the Armenians’ words, about 1.5 million Armenians were killed
during the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923.
Turkey, which is seeking EU membership, denies the fact of genocide,
saying that Armenians were victims of the war, which claimed the
lives of many Turks as well.

Leader of Lithuanian diplomacy support Turkey’s membership in the
European Union.