Over 400 People Evacuated To Armenia From Lebanon

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
July 24, 2006

By Armen Dulian

More than 400 Armenians and ethnic Armenian citizens of Lebanon have
been evacuated to Armenia since the start of Israel’s military assault
against the Middle Eastern nation, a senior official in Yerevan said
on Monday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham Gharibjanian said virtually all of them
have been transported to Yerevan from Syria in special charter flights
carried out by the Armavia national airline and partly subsidized by
the Armenian government. "The planes flying to Syria are empty and
the government covers their one-way cost," told RFE/RL.

Gharibjanian said Armavia carried out a similar flight to Tel Aviv,
bringing back more than 50 Armenian nationals residing in Israel
early on Monday. Not all of them are believed to have returned to
Armenia for security reasons, though.

The government estimates that some 1,200 Armenian nationals lived in
Lebanon before the start of the Israeli onslaught almost two weeks
ago. Lebanon is also home to an estimated 80,000 ethnic Armenians,
most of them living in the Christian districts of Beirut that have
been largely spared bombardment so far. The Armenian community has
not reported any casualties yet.

"Fortunately, our forecasts have proved correct and there has been no
massive influx [of Armenian evacuees from Lebanon], even though our
diplomatic missions are prepared to help to evacuate more people,"
said Gharibjanian.

The government in Yerevan announced last week that any citizen of
Lebanon fleeing the war and willing to take refuge in Armenia will
be granted special residency permits free of charge. It also sent
two diplomats to Beirut and Aleppo, Syria to assist in the evacuation.

So far, about 30,000 foreign nationals have fled Lebanon, most
traveling to Cyprus and Turkey by boat.