PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E-mail: cathcil@cathcil.org
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

IN HIS LETTER TO THE LEBANESE PRESIDENT
AND GOVERNMENT
"HOW CAN AN OCCUPYING FORCE TAKE PART
IN A PEACEKEEPING MISSION?"
ASKS HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

In a letter sent to the President of the Republic of Lebanon, Gen. Emile
Lahoud His Holiness Aram I questions the potential participation of Turkey
in the peacekeeping forces in South Lebanon. "How will a country, the
distant and recent past of which is full of massacres and bloody pages,
participate in a peacekeeping mission? How will a country, that occupies
part of Cyprus, contribute to a peace process? How will a country, that has
a military alliance with Israel, dedicate itself to the mission of securing
Lebanon’s borders? Finally, how will a country that ignores the human rights
of its own people become part of a mission indebted to defend international
conventions and laws?" writes His Holiness Aram I.

"Now that a new and hopeful page is being opened in the history of Lebanon,
with the latter exerting every effort to restore its territorial integrity
and sovereignty and re-establish its unique place and role in the
international community, we demand and expect that such issues are
considered with a correct viewpoint and through a wider perspective with the
full commitment of pursuing Lebanon’s supreme interests," adds His Holiness.

His Holiness stresses that "based on these facts, the presence of Turkey in
the United Nations peacekeeping forces will never be beneficial to Lebanon.
The Armenian community of Lebanon with all its spiritual and communal
structures, political and civil organizations, strongly believes in this.
Also, such is the belief of all the communities of the Armenian Diaspora
that are under the jurisdiction of the Catholicosate of Cilicia."

Bishop Kegham Khatcherian, Primate of the Diocese of Lebanon, visited the
presidential palace in Baabda on Monday 28 August, personally delivering the
Pontiff’s letter to President Gen. Emile Lahoud. The Bishop asked that the
President pass the letter on to the government.

His Holiness Aram I had also expressed his concern about this issue during a
meeting with the representative of Prime Minister Fouad Seniora recently.

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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of the
Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.