Luxembourg Ambassador to Ankara Arlette Conzemius has defended the Luxembourg parliament’s move to recognize the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as genocide by underlining the existence of the democratic system in her country, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“There is a democratic system in our parliament and our lawmakers are free to express their opinions as their democratic right,” Conzemius told reporters in the eastern province of Erzurum May 8. Turkey condemned Luxembourg and withdrew its ambassador in reaction to the Luxembourg parliament’s resolution on May 6 to describe the 1915 incidents as genocide.

“There is a strong relationship between the government of Luxembourg and Turkey. We are planning to continue this strong relationship. As I said earlier, parliament is free to make decisions. I cannot say anything about it because of democracy but Luxembourg does continue to support Turkey’s EU harmonization process.

We will continue this support as well. We are also planning to be a facilitator in the Turkish-Armenian relationship,” she said.