ARMENIAN PROTESTERS GATHER AGAINST TURKEY TIES
By The Daily Star
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
BEIRUT: Thousands of Lebanese of Armenian descent held a peaceful
protest in Beirut Tuesday at the start of a visit by Armenia’s
president who has announced plans to establish relations with Turkey.
Nearly 2,000 protesters gathered around the hotel east of Beirut where
President Serge Sarkisian will be staying during his two-day visit.
There are 150,000 Armenians in Lebanon; nearly 4 percent of the
population.
Sarkisian’s tour of the Diaspora Armenian communities around the world
aims to raise support for his landmark bid for diplomatic ties with
Turkey after a century of enmity.
The killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in
1915 has been the main barrier to reconciliation. Armenians have long
fought to persuade other governments to consider it a genocide. Turkey
rejects the label and says the death toll is inflated.
Hundreds of riot police and soldiers surrounded the Metropolitan
Palace Hotel as the demonstrators waved Armenian flags and banners
in Armenian reading "we will not forget" and "we will struggle."
Sarkisian’s trip dubbed a "pan-Armenian tour" has so far taken him
to Paris, New York and Los Angeles. After Lebanon, he will head to
Rostov-on-Don in Russia to discuss a planned meeting October 10 when
=0 D the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers are expected to sign
the deal to establish ties.
Last month, Turkey and Armenia said they would set aside hostilities
and establish diplomatic ties in favor of practical concerns such as
oil interests and Turkey’s EU membership bid.
Armenians in their poor, isolated homeland are more eager to improve
ties with Turkey than many in the vast Armenian Diaspora.
Armenians abroad – estimated at 5.7 million – outnumber the 3.2 million
living in Armenia itself, the smallest of the ex-Soviet republics.
The largest communities are in Russia (2 million), the US (1.4
million), according to government data.
"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 neighborhood of
Burj Hammoud.
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 draw n up a petition condemning the agreements
set to be signed later this month between Turkey and Armenia on
establishing diplomatic ties. Stores in Burj Hammoud also shut down
on Tuesday afternoon in protest.
"We remember, we demand, we refuse," read placards put up throughout
the neighborhood, 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 coffee shop, said he was ready to take
up arms to prevent the normalization 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 jeweler Haig Asmarian, 34. "My
grandfather still has the titles to his property but it’s time to
turn the page. – AP and AFP, with The Daily Star