Armenia evacuates citizens, ethnic Armenians from Lebanon

AP Worldstream; Jul 19, 2006

More than 180 Armenian citizens were being evacuated from Lebanon
Wednesday amid intensifying fighting between Israeli forces and
Hezbollah guerillas, Armenian government officials said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Karapetian said diplomats in both
Lebanon and Syria were coordinating the pullout, with both Armenian
citizens and ethnic Armenians living in Lebanon converging on the
Armenian Consulate in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

A Syrian airliner carrying about 70 Armenians was expected in the
Armenian capital Yerevan Wednesday, he said, and more were expected
to arrive on an Armenian airliner later in the day.

About 1,200 Armenian citizens were reported to be in Lebanon as the
fighting erupted last week, Karapetian said.

Lebanon has a sizable population of ethnic Armenians, many of whom
are descendants of those who fled what is today Turkey after World
War I amid a series of mass killings. An estimated 120,000 ethnic
Armenians live in the country today _ some 50,000 in Beirut alone.

Russia, meanwhile, sent two planes to Latakia, Syria to begin
evacuating its citizens fleeing Lebanon. Buses brought more than 200
Russians to Syria on Tuesday, and about 1,000 others were to be bused
in on Wednesday and eventually flown to Moscow, officials and news
reports said.