TURKISH PEACEKEEPERS ARRIVE FOR MISSION IN SOUTH
by Daily Star staff

The Daily Star, Lebanon
Oct 21 2006

Deployment comes despite vocal opposition from armenian community

Around 260 Turkish soldiers arrived in Lebanon on Friday, the first
Muslim land forces to join UN peacekeepers monitoring a cease-fire
between Israel and Lebanon. Two ships carrying 95 personnel and 46
vehicles docked at Beirut Port, officials said. Some 160 more troops
flew to Beirut’s airport a short time later.

The first Turkish deployment in Lebanon since the Ottomans left in
1918, shortly before their empire collapsed at the end of World War I,
the troops will be stationed in the village of Shaatit, 7.5 kilometers
from the Southern port of Tyre.

But their arrival comes despite vocal opposition from Lebanon’s
Armenian community, which accuses the Turks’ Ottoman ancestors of
genocide.

Turkey, a key regional ally of Israel, is the first Muslim country
to contribute troops to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
that will eventually number 15,000 men.

Muslim nations Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Qatar have also
pledged soldiers to the planned 15,000-strong force, but they have
yet to arrive.

A small advance team of engineers, who are due to work mostly on the
reconstruction of roads and bridges as well as de-mining, arrived on
October 10 but Turkey is not expected to contribute any more ground
troops to the UN force.

The Turkish government has said it will contribute a total of 681
troops.

A Turkish frigate is already serving in the German-led naval task
force patrolling the Lebanese coast to prevent arms being smuggled
to Hizbullah, and the navy has said it will also send two corvettes.

Members of Lebanon’s 140,000-strong Armenian community have staged
several demonstrations in protest at the troop deployment because
Turkey refuses to recognize the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians by
the Ottomans as genocide.

But the Armenians are not expected to mount further protests, despite
accusations Turkey is seeking to establish a "new Ottoman empire."

"Their return is for economic reasons and to revive their dream of
a new Ottoman empire in the Middle East," said Armenian-Lebanese
MP Hagop Pakradounian. "We don’t understand why the government is
enthusiastic for the Turks to come."

But a fellow Armenian-Lebanese MP, Hagop Kassarjian, said the community
had to accept the facts on the ground.

"Even though we’re Armenian and we’ve protested, we’re Lebanese after
all. We did what we have to do but the Lebanese government has taken
a decision and so has the international community," he said.