Lithuanian state archives remove post on Armenian genocide after pressure from foreign ministry and Turkish embassy
Tuesday 5th May 2026 on 14:00 in
Lithuania
The Lithuanian Central State Archives deleted a social media post commemorating the Armenian genocide following informal pressure from the country’s Foreign Ministry and Turkey’s embassy, an archive employee told the ELTA news agency on Monday.
Inga Zakšauskienė, head of the Chief Archivist’s Office, confirmed that a meeting with Turkish embassy representatives was hastily arranged on April 28. During the discussion, embassy officials expressed concern that the archives were “politicising” the issue of the Armenian genocide.
“They voiced worries about why the State Archives allow themselves to publish and promote what might be political questions,” Zakšauskienė told ELTA, while insisting the archives remain apolitical. She maintained that the post was based on “scientifically proven historical facts” and compared it to Russia’s denial of Soviet-era deportations of Lithuanians to Siberia.
Zakšauskienė denied receiving any formal complaints from the Turkish embassy, describing the meeting as a “soft power” effort to gently remind Lithuania of shared historical interests with Turkey. “No official letter or call was received. It was simply a visit—a soft power measure to explain their position while subtly suggesting we seek common historical points, of which, frankly, there are few,” she said.
Džiuginta Abromaitienė, head of the archives’ Document Dissemination Division, claimed she received an unofficial call from Foreign Ministry representatives questioning whether the post could harm long-term Lithuanian-Turkish relations. The ministry, however, denied issuing any recommendations to the archives or other institutions on the matter.
The Turkish embassy in Vilnius had not responded to ELTA’s request for comment by the time of publication.
In 2005, Lithuania’s parliament adopted a resolution condemning the 1914–1918 Armenian genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire. The European Parliament recognised the genocide in a 2015 resolution. Turkey continues to deny that the mass killings constituted genocide.