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In the town of Klaipedia, there is the Ararat Armenian Restaurant
Armenian Embassy opens in Lithuania
November 26, 2011 - 18:24 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - On November 26, Vilnius hosted a ceremonial opening of the Armenian Embassy in Lithuania.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, his Lithuanian counterpart Audronius Azubalis, parliamentarians and representatives of the Armenian community attended the event.
As Nalbandian stated during the ceremony, Lithuania became the fist Baltic state to open Armenian Embassy, which testifies to intention of the two countries to further bilateral ties.
Azubalis, in turn, noted the opening of the Embassy to signal a new stage in Yerevan-Vilnius relations.
The opening was followed by a meeting with Armenia-Lithuania cooperation in the framework of international organizations on discussion agenda.
Also, Armenian Foreign Minister briefed his Lithuanian counterpart on recent developments in Karabakh issue as well as OSCE Mink Group co-chairs proposals for settlement to be discussed during their regional visit next week, Armenian Foreign Ministry press service reported.
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Relations with Armenia
PRESIDENT OF LITHUANIA TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA TODAY
ArmRadio.am 25.04.2006 10:27
At RA President Robert Kocharyan's invitation, the delegation headed by the President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus will pay an official visit to Armenia 25-26 April.
The aim of the visit is to reinforce the interstate relations, to determine the primary problems and directions of economic cooperation between the two countries, as well as promote scientific-educational and cultural ties by attaching new quality and content to the traditional friendship of Armenian and Lithuanian peoples.
April 25 the Lithuanian President will be officially welcomed at RA President 's Office, following which Robert Kocharyan and Valdas Adamkus will hold a meeting. Thereafter the meeting of the delegations will continue in an enlarged format. The governments of the two countries will sign agreements on promoting investments and mutual defense.
The Presidents of the two countries will give a joint press conference.
During the visit to Armenia the Lithuanian President will have meetings with Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, Vice-Chairman of the National Assembly Tigran Torosyan.
Valdas Adamkus will be received also by the Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II.
At Yerevan State University the President of Lithuania will have a meeting with the faculty and students. Valdas Adamkus will visit Tsitsernakaberd and the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide.
The Lithuanian delegation will visit also Matenadaran and the Museum after Sergey Parajanov.
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Genocide Recognition
Lithuanian Parliament Recognizes Armenian Genocide
By Anna Saghabalian
Lithuania's parliament has adopted a resolution recognizing the 1915-1918 mass killings and deportations of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide, lawmakers and Armenian community leaders in the Baltic state confirmed on Friday.
The legislature, Sejmas, also urged Turkey on Thursday to `recognize historical facts' and drop its insistence that the massacres did not constitute a genocide.
The resolution was put forward by lawmakers representing center-right opposition parties and appears to have drawn no objections from the parliament majority. Reports from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius said its adoption was virtually unanimous, with 48 votes in favor, none against and three abstentions.
`The resolution was also co-sponsored by members of the foreign relations committee of Sejmas,' Algis Kaseta, the parliamentary leader of Lithuania's Liberal Party and main author of the resolution, told RFE/RL by phone. `Most of them have close ties with the Foreign Ministry. I think they made a politically correct assessment of the situation and took this decision.'
`This means the parliament and the government of Lithuania have a common view on this issue,' Kaseta said.
The 1,000-strong Armenian community in Lithuania, according to its leader Aram Tunian, lobbied for the passage of the resolution. Tunian said the parliament's foreign relations committee initially opposed it.
The Armenian genocide has also been recognized by the parliaments of several other European Union member states, including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Greece. All of them were denounced by Turkey. There was no official reaction from Ankara to the Lithuanian move as of Friday evening.
RFE/RL Armenia Report - 12/16/2005
KOCHARIAN THANKS LITHUANIA FOR GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
By Anna Saghabalian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep April 25 2006
President Robert Kocharian thanked Lithuania for its parliament's recent recognition of the Armenian genocide as he received his visiting Lithuanian counterpart, Valdas Adamkus, on Tuesday.
In a resolution overwhelmingly approved last December, the Baltic state's legislature, Sejmas, urged Turkey to "recognize historical facts" and drop its insistence that the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire did not constitute a genocide. The Turkish government denounced the move.
"The issue is very important for us and it is not just historical in nature as today our relations with Turkey are burdened by this historical reality," Kocharian told reporters after talks with Adamkus. "I think that recognizing the genocide and coming to terms with history is extremely important for normalizing our [Turkish-Armenian] relations."
He said Yerevan will continue to seek worldwide recognition of the genocide in collaboration with leaders of Armenian Diaspora communities.
Adamkus arrived in Yerevan on a official visit which appears to have focused on ways of restoring economic ties that used to exist between the two former Soviet republics. They announced plans to hold a Lithuanian-Armenian business forum in the near future.
A statement by Kocharian's office said Armenia's relations with the European Union, which Lithuania joined two years ago, were also on the agenda of the talks. Kocharian again stated that his country is interested in learning from Lithuania's as well as neighboring Latvia's and Estonia's successful transition to democracy and the free market.
The Lithuanian president, for his part, made a case for political and economic integration in the South Caucasus. "We have discussed common regional policies," he said. "I think it is about time our regions -- the South Caucasus and the Baltic states -- joined forces to build a better future. This is what we call a three-plus-three formula which I think will become reality after this meeting."