Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
October 12, 2006 Thursday 5:20 PM EST

Lebanon’s Armenians protest against Turkish UN force

DPA POLITICS France Diplomacy Turkey Lebanon Lebanon’s Armenians
protest against Turkish UN force Beirut
Thousands of Lebanese Armenians protested Thursday
in downtown Beirut against Turkish troops participating in a UN

peacekeeping force to supervise a fragile UN-brokered ceasefire
between Hezbollah and Israel.

The protest, headed by Armenian political and religious leaders,
took place two days after seven Turkish officers arrived in Beirut.

The crowd held high banners denouncing the presence of Turkish
troops as "an insult to the 140,000 Armenians living in Lebanon" and
proclaiming: "Genocide and massacre: Turkey’s definition of peace."

Turkey is to deploy some 700 soldiers in Lebanon, including troops
aboard naval ships.
Oct 1206 1720 GMT