Lebanese Armenians protest against Erdogan visit

Agence France Presse — English
June 15, 2005 Wednesday 2:21 PM GMT

BEIRUT June 15 — Several hundred Lebanese Armenians took part in a
demonstration Wednesday at which a Turkish flag was burnt in protest
at a visit by Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The demonstrators in Bourj Hammoud, an Armenian suburb of Beirut,
shouted slogans against the Ottoman massacre of the Armenians.

Some carried cartoon posters of Erdogan depicting him as Pinocchio.

Lebanon is home to the largest Armenian community in the Arab world,
made up of descendants of survivors of the 1915-1917 massacres in
Turkey. The community is estimated to number 120,000, half of what
it was before the 1975-1990 civil war.

Several countries have recognized the massacres as genocide — a term
Turkey fiercely rejects — and Brussels has urged Ankara to face its
past and expand freedom of speech.

But the Ankara government last month squelched a landmark conference
questioning the official line on the mass killings that was to have
been held at Istanbul’s prestigious Bogazici University.

Erdogan was expected in Beirut later Wednesday for talks with Lebanese
officials and to take part in the Arab Economic Forum.