AsiaNews.it, Italy
June 16 2005
Armenians protest Erdogan’s visit to Beirut
by Youssef Hourany
Hariri’s warm welcome to Turkish Premier is criticised as the
campaign gets hotter. Hizbollah says no to forcing President Lahoud
to resign.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Four days from the last and decisive round of
Lebanon’s elections, the visit by Turkish Prime Minister has provoked
protests by the country’s Armenian community. It is also generating
anti-Saad Hariri feelings in this community. For its part, today
Hizbollah rejected Hariri’s call for President Lahoud’s resignation.
Protests by the Armenian community in its Bourj Hammouyd stronghold
against the visit by the Turkish Prime Minister are a new factor in
the ongoing political crisis that is shaking Lebanon.
Residents of the populous neighbourhood-reputed for its banks,
shopping centres and jewellery shops throughout the Middle East-have
blocked streets and shut down stores.
Armenians blame Turkey for committing genocide against them in the
early part of the 20th century and demand that the international
community condemn this act so that it may never happen again
elsewhere.
Lebanese-Armenians have also protested against the attitude shown by
newly-elected MNA for Beirut Saad Hariri, who gave the Turkish
Premier a very warm welcome.
Upon arrival, Mr Erdogan went to Rafik Hariri’s mausoleum in downtown
Beirut to pay his respect to the slain former Lebanese Prime
Minister.
Saad Hariri is working on his election campaign in northern Lebanon
where two main slates of candidates are running-one that sees
Interior Minister Suleiman Frangieh allied with General Michel Aoun;
the other made of Hariri, Kornet Chehwane, and the Lebanese Forces.
The round in northern Lebanon will complete the staggered process to
elect Lebanon’s 128-member National Assembly, evenly divided between
Christians and Muslims in accordance with the 1989Taif agreement.
Results next Sunday will determine the new political map of the
country. Surveys indicate that the 28 seat up for grabs might split
down the middle with 14 going to each of the two main groupings.
Should this happen current President Emile Lahoud is likely to
continue his mandate until 2007.
After the elections though, lawmakers will have to elect a new
Speaker of the National Assembly and choose a new Prime Minister.
Since yesterday, Saad Hariri has been on the campaign trail in
Tripoli helping his allies.
According to Gebran Bassil, who is running on General Aoun’s ticket,
Hariri’s help includes handing out petrodollars.
Mr Bassil said the Frangieh-Aoun alliance trusted the people,
reaffirming its conviction that it was not for sale; voters, he said,
have done everything to preserve Lebanon’s true character.
The northern region, he added, is the Land of Saints, the Land God
blessed with shrines, that of Saint Rebecca, Saint Neemtallah and
Saint Charbel.
In the meantime, Hizbollah deputy secretary general, Sheikh Nahim
Kassem, said that it was necessary to preserve the presidency. His
party, which now has 14 members in the National Assembly, is against
the demand by Jumblatt, Hariri and the Kornet Chehwane group to
remove Lahoud from office before the end of his mandate in 2007.
The head of the Presidency’s Economic, Social and Educational Affairs
Directorate Faten Nader told AsiaNews that President Lahoud wants to
see Lebanon reborn.
She insisted that the President is attached to the country’s
political institutions which, in his view, remain the only way to
help it maintain its mission. As Pope John Paul II said: “Lebanon is
more a message than a country”. And for Ms Nader the Lebanese must
follow reason and overcome sentimentality.
Today also marks the return to Lebanon of former Deputy Prime
Minister Issam Fares, who after Rafik Hariri’s assassination, said he
would retire from politics.
Contacted by phone by this news agency, he said that northerners will
speak their mind on Election Day. “This people will never be bought,
as some might want,” he said.
Fares confirmed that he was against removing President Lahoud from
office and reiterated his support for the Frangieh-Aoun alliance.
(YH)
