ARMENIANS JUMP LEBANON’S DIVIDE
Natalia Antelava
BBC News
iddle_east/8000507.stm
2009/04/16 07:35:53 GMT
Anjar
In the centre of the village of Anjar, a simple white monument to
Christian martyrs cuts into the blue sky.
"These are our heroes," Yessaya Havatian says, as his finger traces
the curly letters carved into the white stone of the monument.
He reads out the names of 18 Armenians who were killed by the Turks
in 1915 and who are buried in Lebanon.
"We brought their ashes with us when we came to Lebanon, two of my
relatives are among them," he adds.
In the early 20th Century, hundreds of thousands of refugees came to
Lebanon fleeing the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
Over the years the Armenian community became an integral part of
Lebanon’s diverse demographic and political landscape, but it also
succeeded at preserving its language and traditions.
Armenian is still the main language spoken in Mr Havatian’s family. His
mother, Lucine, remembers coming to Anjar as a 12-year-old girl.
"There was nothing but desert here. We lived in tents as we built
our own village," she says.
Her wrinkled faces lights up with pride as she adds that 70 years on,
she still does not speak a word of Arabic.
"What do I need Arabic for?" she smirks dismissively. "If they want
to talk to me, they20should learn Armenian."
The younger family members chuckle – both amused and embarrassed by
the grandmother’s lack of political correctness.
Unlike her, they feel not only Armenian but also Lebanese. They speak
Arabic fluently and they are also keenly aware of the role they are
about to play in defining Lebanon’s future.
Strength through unity
In the upcoming parliamentary election in June, the main Armenian
political party, Tashnak, looks set to play kingmaker.
The vote of the 150,000-strong Armenian community may sway the outcome
of the bitter and close race between the pro-Western government and
the opposition led by Hezbollah, a Shia group backed by Syria and Iran.
In the run-up to the election, politicians from both blocs have been
fighting for the Armenian votes.
But of the three Armenian parties, Tashnak enjoys most support and
it has already made its choice, joining the Hezbollah-led alliance.
"What makes us strong is our unity. That’s how we survive as a
community, that’s how we preserve our identity – and that’s why I’ll
vote with everyone else," Mr Havatian says.
But voting for the opposition is also highly unusual for the Armenian
community, which has traditionally gone with the government, not
against it.
In Lebanon’s confessional political system, Armenians – like other
major religious and ethnic communities, have an assigned number of
seats in parliament.
For years, these seven seats were always won by the Tashnak Party.
But in 2000, a new law backed by Prime Minister Rafik Hariri redrew
the electoral map of Beirut, dividing the Armenian neighbourhoods
among districts with Sunni Muslim majorities.
As a result the Tashnak party lost seats to lesser-known Armenians
who supported the Sunni Muslim prime minister.
"We were forced to go to the opposition," says Tashnak MP Hagop
Pakradounian. "We simply cannot trust the government anymore."
For the Tashnak party and its supporters, the June election is a
chance to re-establish its parliamentary foothold.
Local tensions
Since Tashnak is campaigning under the opposition umbrella, winning
seats will also mean securing overall victory for Hezbollah.
Mr Pakradounian argues that his Christian constituency has plenty
in common with the radical Shia movement, with its powerful armed
militant wing, known as the Islamic Resistance.
" Our priority is to be independent as a community, because that
is the only way for us to keep our identity and our heritage. Today
it’s Hezbollah that makes us feel safe " Armenian politician Hagop
Pakradounian "We believe in resistance. We, as Armenians, are also
against oppression, against occupation," he says.
"Hezbollah was set up to fight Israel, and the occupation. We too
know what it’s like to have your land occupied"
Not everyone agrees – an editorial in one of Beirut’s newspapers
recently warned the Armenian community to be "prudent with their
choices", and to examine the consequences of "any breach of their
historical neutrality".
Anjar itself is one potential example of how such alliance with
Hezbollah could backfire.
It is surrounded by Sunni Muslim villages and Yessaya Havatian thinks
there is a danger these could turn against the Armenians if they help
the Shia Muslim bloc get into government.
"It gets tense here sometimes," Mr Havatian admits. "During elections
it may get even more tense."
But the main Armenian party is adamant about the choice it has made.
"In politics, there are priorities," says Mr Pakradounian. "Our
priority is to be independent as a community, because that is the
only way for us to keep our identity and our heritage," he says.
"Today, it’s Hezbollah that makes us feel safe, and we believe that
its Hezbollah that can help us protect our identity," he says.