Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has recalled the country's ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Hungary over the "diplomats' scandal."

The order was undersigned by the Lithuanian President on August 29, the president's website reported.

A day before Lithuanian government made a decision to propose to the President to recall the ambassadors from Azerbaijan and Hungary, who were criticized by the Prime Minister for posting the records of their phone conversation on the internet, Lithuanian website 15min.lt reported.

The ambassadors are proposed to recall from their positions since September 30.

According to the Constitution, the president may recall ambassadors on the basis of a relevant submission of the government.

On July 8, recordings of three phone conversations (4 parts of the records in total) were published on youtube.com.

The conversations allegedly involve Lithuanian diplomats Zenonas Kumetaitis, deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Eastern Neighborhood Policy Department, Lithuania's Ambassador to Hungary Renatas Juška, Lithuania's Ambassador to Azerbaijan Artūras Žurauskas and Gediminas Kasputis, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In one of the records, Žurauskas is said to be talking to a Lithuanian businessman identified as Kęstutis.

All records feature English subtitles.

The two recordings mention relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. During the conversation, the interlocutors reportedly discussed their own point of view about the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, explicitly expressing pro-Armenian position.

Earlier, Lithuanian President Grybauskaite said the alleged conversation leaked to youtube.com is a provocation aimed against Lithuania and its presidency over the European Union Council.

Lithuania is holding EU Council presidency in the second half of the year, and the Eastern Partnership summit scheduled for November is one of the key presidency events. The Eastern Partnership initiative covers bilateral and multilateral EU cooperation with Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Moldova, promoting closer ties of the Eastern European nations with the EU.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Lithuania Hasan Mammadzade also believes that the leaked diplomatic conversations are a provocation against Azerbaijan and Lithuania.

According to Mammadzade, the conversation of Lithuanian diplomats on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict does not reflect the official position of Lithuania. As indicated in the documents signed by the presidents of the two countries, the official position of the country calls for a peaceful settlement of the conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, he added.