LEBANON’S ARMENIANS REJECT ACCORD WITH TURKEY
By Josie Ensor and Sam Tarling

Daily Star
Friday, October 09, 2009

BEIRUT: Lebanese Armenian community leaders have drawn up a petition
condemning the accord to be signed Saturday between Armenia and
Turkey, accusing Armenian President Serge Sarkisian of dismissing
past suffering caused by the long-standing foe. Sarkisian received
a frosty reception when he met with leaders of the Lebanese Armenian
community this week during a whistle-stop diplomatic visit to Beirut.

The president met with political and religious figures for a conference
at Metropolitan Palace Hotel in east Beirut Tuesday, along with
representatives from surrounding Arab countries, Iran and Cyprus,
to gather support for Armenia formally warming ties with Turkey.

Sarkisian was in Lebanon on a scheduled stop as part of his
"pan-Armenian" tour, which included the US, France and Russia, in a
bid to persuade anxious Armenian exiles that peace with Turkey does
not mean forgetting what they call a genocide in which 1.5 million
perished.

Lebanon’s Armenian Tashnag party and other blocs were said to be
unhappy with the proposed deal set to be signed this weekend in
Switzerland, a spokeswoman from the Armenian Embassy in Beirut told
The Daily Star Thursday.

The spokeswoman, who did not wish to be identified, referred to the
reaction at the conference as "not good at all."

0ASarkisian has faced an uphill task in talks with community leaders in
Lebanon as all the major political parties – which wield considerable
influence in the delicate political system – are against the proposed
accord with Turkey.

"Sarkisian was not received well," concurred Lebanon’s Tashnag-party
representative Alice Boghossian, adding that delegates from the three
main Armenian political parties were united in their opposition to the
president’s proposal. "All who were present were on the same level,"
she added.

Boghossian is one of the 5.7 million Armenians who are living abroad,
outnumbering by 2 million the country’s domestic residents. She told
The Daily Star Thursday that many in the diaspora saw the step as
contempt for the hardship Armenians suffered in World War I.

"The massacres were an attempt to wipe out [our people]. My grandfather
and grandmother were killed there. If they were still alive Armenia
would still be my homeland," said Tashnag’s Boghossian.

"The diaspora is a result of Turkey’s policies and therefore
[Sarkisian] has a commitment to the millions of Armenians living
abroad."

Armenian political parties want the Ottoman mas­sacres to be
officially referred to as genocide, a term Turkey refutes, for
the return of "occupied land" and Turkey to withdraw support from
Azerbaijan with regards to the=2 0breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Armenia used to cover 300,000 square kilometers, now it is only
30,000.

We are not opposed to peaceful relationships with countries that
neighbor Armenia, far from it, but theses issues must be resolved
before anything is singed," said Boghossian.

During his brief visit, Sarkis­ian said that "the current unnatural
situation" between the two states suited neither of them. He added
that the establishment of diplomatic ties and the opening of the
border would "create a platform, a more or less bearable environment,
for continued dialogue and negotiations."

Tashnag MP Hagop Pakra­dounian, one of six Armenian deputies in
Lebanon’s Parliament told the local New TV channel Wednesday that he
was opposed to the "weak political stance of the Armenian president,
especially with regards to the concessions to Turkey.

"This issue concerns Armenians worldwide and not just those in
Armenia," he added. "We are not talking about a simple economic accord
between two countries but a historic one that concerns each Armenian
family, whatever its nationality."

Lebanon is one of few places where Armenian migrants enjoy
political representation with some 150,000 Armenians living in the
country. Mostly concentrated in the east Beirut municipality of Burj
Hammoud, they make up 4 percent of the population.

The chilled reception at the conference came a day after thousands
of angry protesters demonstrated outside the president’s hotel on
his arrival.

Hundreds of riot police and soldiers surrounded the hotel as
demonstrators swarmed the area, waving placards reading: "We will
struggle," and "We will not forget," in reference to the killing of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915, which has been the main
stumbling block to reconciliation.

Sarkisian arrived in Russia Wednesday to conclude the weeklong tour,
where he was met with a warmer reception than preceding stops in the
US, France and Lebanon.