SOME CHRISTIANS VOTING FOR HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON
by Adrine Akopyan
AllGov
ting_for_Hezbollah_in_Lebanon_90601
June 1 2009
Last month’s announcement by the Armenian Tashnaq party in Lebanon
of its intention to support Hezbollah in the upcoming parliamentary
elections could provide the crucial votes needed for Hezbollah’s
coalition to inch ahead of the current pro-Western majority. Nearly
160,000-strong, the Armenian voting bloc is the largest and best
organized of the Lebanese Christian communities.
Accused by their opponents of siding with the opposition in order
to protect large Armenian communities in both Iran and Syria, the
chairman of the Lebanese branch of Tashnaq, Hovig Mekhitarian, disputed
all such claims. "We want candidates who represent our community,"
Mekhitarian said. "We are not with the opposition, and not with the
majority." He further emphasized that their decision was not based
on ideology, but rather served a purely local purpose.
With a deep history of political neutrality, the Armenians, much
like other minority ethnic groups, have put their own communitiy’s
interests above those of the Lebanese state’s as a whole. The Hezbollah
coalition offered them complete control over all Armenian-dominated
districts. The pro-Western majority leader, Saad Hariri, attempted
to court Tashnaq leaders, but ultimately proved unsuccessful because
he did not offer enough. "He was really only offering one seat, and
he wanted our support in 15 other seats," Mekhitarian said. Those
who negotiated on behalf of Hariri painted a slightly different
picture. They held that the majority leadership had given into all of
the Tashnaq’s demands for parliamentary seats, but in return wanted
Armenian support before and after the elections. Conscious of their
neutrality and unwilling to appear too close to any single political
group, the Armenians refused the offer.