LEBANON ARMENIANS REVOLT AGAINST PLANNED TURKEY DEAL

AFP
Oct 7, 2009

7 October 2009, BEIRUT – Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian was greeted
by thousands of angry demonstrators as he arrived in Lebanon on Tuesday
to discuss with the local Armenian community plans to establish ties
with Turkey.

The demonstrators — men, women and children — carried placards
that read "no to the agreements" and "the blood of Armenians not up
for sale" as they marched outside Sarkisian’s hotel on the outskirts
of Beirut.

Some demonstrators clashed briefly with anti-riot police who had
deployed around the hotel, and a handful of people were lightly
injured by batons, an AFP correspondent said.

Sarkisian’s short stop in Beirut is part of a week-long international
trip aimed at calming concerns among the Armenian diaspora over
Turkish-Armenian efforts to normalise relations.

But such plans have angered many in Lebanon’s 140,000-strong Armenian
community, mostly made up of the descendants of those who survived
massacres in eastern Anatolia under Ottoman rule almost a century ago.

"After nearly 100 years of fighting for our cause, how can our enemy
become our friend in the blink of an eye," asked a visibly angry
Koko Marashlian, a store owner in Beirut’s Armenian neighbourhood of
Burj Hammud.

Hagop Pakradounian, one of six Armenian deputies in Lebanon’s
parliament, said the community was all for improved ties between
Armenia and Turkey but not at any price.

"This issue concerns Armenians worldwide and not just those in
Armenia," Pakradounian told AFP.

"We are not talking about a simple economic accord between two
countries but a historic one that concerns each Armenian family,
whatever its nationality," he said.

Community members have drawn up a petition condemning the agreements
set to be signed later this month between Turkey and Armenia on
establishing diplomatic ties.

Stores in Burj Hammud also shut down on Tuesday afternoon in protest.

"We remember, we demand, we refuse," read placards put up throughout
the neighbourhood, where Armenian patriotic music blared.

"These agreements will sound the death knell of our cause," store-owner
Marashlian said. "As descendants of those exiled, we are the main
victims of these agreements."

Keborg Abajian, 55, who runs a coffeeshop, said he was ready to take
up arms to prevent the normalisation of ties.

"I will shut down my shop to go fight so that our martyrs are not
forgotten," he said. "We want to recover our land. My ancestors owned
huge plots of land in Urfa," in southeast Turkey.

Some members of the younger generation, however, appeared to adopt
a more conciliatory tone, saying it was time to move on.

"The state of Armenia has made a decision and who am I to decide
what is best for its people," asked jeweller Haig Asmarian, 34. "My
grandfather still has the titles to his property but it’s time to
turn the page.

"And who knows, maybe this will benefit Armenia economically."

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically
killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms against their Ottoman rulers and sided with
invading Russian troops.

Sarkisian’s tour has also included stops in France and the United
States and was to conclude in Russia.