Turkish prime minister warns sectarian tensions in Lebanon will affect
region
International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
BEIRUT, Lebanon
Turkey’s prime minister warned that growing sectarian tensions in Lebanon
will affect the entire Middle East if left unchecked and offered to mediate
in the political crisis if asked by rival factions.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived here on a one-day visit
for talks with feuding Lebanese leaders on the country’s deepening political
crisis.
Shortly after his arrival, Erdogan met with Lebanese premier Fuad Saniora
whose Western-backed government is facing increasing pressure in the form of
street protests led by Hezbollah and other opposition groups.
"I told Saniora that sectarian differences will leave repercussions on the
region," Erdogan told reporters.
"I also told him that all parties in Lebanon and all states in the region
must act to solve this problem," Erdogan said, stressing that a solution to
the Lebanese crisis should be reached through dialogue.
Erdogan’s visit came as the growing political and sectarian tensions among
Lebanese factions threaten to tear the country apart. It also came more than
a week after Arab League chief Amr Moussa said that his efforts have failed
to reach a solution to the crisis.
Tensions between pro- and anti-Syrian groups erupted when six pro-Hezbollah
Cabinet ministers resigned in November after Saniora rejected their demand
for a new national unity government that would give Hezbollah and its allies
a veto power on key Cabinet decisions.
Erdogan met Saniora who has been living at his office complex in central
Beirut amid a tight security cordon near the thousands of Hezbollah
supporters and allies camping nearby.
Erdogan, speaking in Turkish, said Turkey was not mediating in the Lebanese
crisis but was ready to do so if asked to help by feuding parties.
Saniora said because of its close ties with the Arab world, Turkey can play
"an important role" in promoting a solution to the Lebanese crisis.
"We stressed on stability in Lebanon and its impact on the region," he said.
Before meeting with Lebanon’s president and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri,
a Hezbollah ally, Erdogan flew by a Turkish military helicopter to southern
Lebanon where he inspected Turkish troops serving with the U.N. peacekeeping
force known as UNIFIL. He reviewed an honor guard, thanked troops for their
service and had lunch with military officers.
Some 260 Turkish troops, deployed near the southern port city of Tyre, are
helping rebuild bridges and roads damaged in last summer’s war between
Hezbollah and Israel. Turkish officials said that the total number of
Turkish personnel in Lebanon would ultimately reach 681, including sailors
and engineers.
Erdogan also said he will meet later Wednesday with legislator Mohammed
Raad, head of Hezbollah’s 11-member parliamentary bloc.
While Erdogan was meeting Saniora, thousands of Armenians, raising Lebanese
and Armenian flags, gathered in the streets north of Beirut shouting slogans
against the Turkish premier’s visit, witnesses said. All shops in the
Armenian neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud north of Beirut closed for a couple
of hours.
"Turkey, Israel’s strategic ally, cannot keep peace in Lebanon," read a
placard by the protesters. The protesters dispersed peacefully but the
demonstration caused a traffic jam on Beirut’s northern highway.
Ahead of Erdogan’s arrival, about 100 Armenian citizens, waving Lebanese
flags, also gathered outside the Beirut airport to protest his visit.
In October, thousands from Lebanon’s 80,000-100,000 strong Armenian
community rallied in downtown Beirut to protest Turkish participation in the
U.N. peacekeeping force because they blame Turkey’s Ottoman rulers for the
mass killing of Armenians in the early 20th century.
Turkey, a U.S. ally and NATO’s only predominantly Muslim member, has close
ties to both Israel and Arab states.
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