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Delfi Lithuanian news portal reporter Vladimiras Laučius conducted an extensive interview on November 14 with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, who, among other things, touched upon Turkey-NATO and Turkey-EU relations, stressing that recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey is “a matter of time and one day it will happen”.

Below is the English version of the part of the Lithuanian leader’s interview on Turkey and the Armenian Genocide.

Vladimiras Laučius: You emphasize common values as a fundament of the “friendship alliances”. But what do you think about Turkey? Erdogan openly threatens Europe, urges the Turks to have multiple children so that they become the “future of Europe”; his army attacks Kurds, the allies of other NATO countries; Turkey is subjected to Islamization, it rapidly moves away from the values that NATO was founded to preserve for. Does the West go along with “this” Turkey – bearing in mind Russia’s value-alienation from the West?

Gitanas Nausėda: It’s a very difficult question. In fact, Turkey is changing. We see rather aggressive actions destabilizing the region. And in this regard, the question is whether the West will achieve any positive result by moving away from Turkey or taking any decision on it or its NATO membership? The question is, will this bring more peace to the region and to the world in general?

However, Turkey's role in the region, both in terms of refugees and in terms of military strength, remains crucial. And perhaps at this point it is necessary to openly refer to the problems that Turkey is raising, but at the same time to monitor the situation and draw conclusions as to what could happen in the future without taking any radical decisions. Because the role of Turkey remains very important due to the circumstances that I’ve mentioned.

Vladimiras Laučius: Turkey is a NATO country that committed Armenian Genocide, which, moreover, has been recognized by Lithuania and, more recently, by the US House of Representatives. Turkey does not recognize the fact of genocide. Can you imagine a situation, where a state that does not recognize Holocaust is a NATO member?

Gitanas Nausėda: No, I can’t. But, nevertheless, on this issue [the recognition of Armenian genocide] I still think that it is a matter of time and one day it will happen. Maybe it won’t happen very soon. However, it is difficult to expect this to happen in the next five or ten years. But I think, that as it is a fact, one way or another it will be recognized.