Turkish PM on day trip to Lebanon
Agence France Presse — English
January 3, 2007 Wednesday 9:42 AM GMT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Beirut on
Wednesday to meet Lebanese leaders and visit Turkish troops serving
with the UN peacekeeping force, officials said.
Erdogan was to see President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora,
parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri and parliamentary majority leader
Saad Hariri during his day-long stay.
Hariri is the son of former prime minister Rafic Hariri, whose
assassination in a Beirut bomb attack in February 2005 is the subject
of an ongoing United Nations investigation that has implicated senior
officials from Syria and Lebanese accomplices.
In a statement, the Turkish prime minister’s office said Erdogan
would be underlining Turkey’s contribution to the UN Interim Force
in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the help it could give to Lebanon after last
year’s Israel-Hezbollah war.
Turkey assigned 261 soldiers to UNIFIL in October.
Erdogan’s office added that he would do what he could to help Lebanon
overcome its ongoing political crisis, which has seen Hezbollah leading
a mass sit-in in Beirut to demand the end of Siniora’s government.
Some 100 Lebanese of Armenian heritage were seen demonstrating
Wednesday morning near Beirut airport against Erdogan’s visit. Turkey
refuses to recognize the mass killings of Armenians from 1915 and
1917 as genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
