ANKARA

Lithuanian parliament Thursday approved a resolution that recognizes 1944 Soviet deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide.

"Today Lithuanian Parliament passed resolution declaring mass deportation of #CrimeanTatars 75 years ago act of genocide committed by the totalitarian Stalinist regime. #Lithuania will continue standing up for the Crimean Tatars’ rights in #Russia’s occupied Crimea," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius wrote on Twitter.

Seventy-seven out of 78 MPs voted in favor of the resolution, while one MP abstained.

The parliament also condemned the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

On May 18, 1944, tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars were deported to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin’s Soviet regime, which accused them of collaborating with occupying Nazi forces.

The Crimean Tatars were deported to various regions within Soviet territory, in particular Siberia and Uzbekistan. Almost half of the exiles, who endured long months of dire living conditions, are thought to have died of starvation and disease.

*Writing by Burak Bir