The Washington Post
February 13, 2005 Sunday
Final Edition
Washington Is Also Reading . . . Selling Well in Local Independent
Bookstores
Birds Without Wings
By Louis de Bernières (Knopf, $25.95)
De Bernières’ much anticipated new novel relays, in epic fashion, the
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the modern Turkish
state via a small Anatolian village whose multicultural tranquility
is shattered by the vagaries of war and the Armenian massacre.
(F)
In Other Words
By Christopher J. Moore (Walker, $14)
As translators of foreign works into English can attest, the nuances
of other languages often make a precise English rendering of a word
or phrase next to impossible. Moore, a linguist, has assembled a
global lexicon of some of the more difficult and amusing examples.
(NF)
What We Do Now
Ed. by Dennis Loy Johnson & Valerie
Merians (Melville, $12). The 2004 election is history. As the shock
abates and a new game plan emerges on the Left, a group of 24
prominent progressives offer their vision of how to counter the
conservative rally. And for the inspired, a gazetteer of activist
group contacts is included. (NF)
–Boundary_(ID_dqXyws9j42HkcFKsm+EEaA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Aristakes sings Armenian anthem during international match
Amersfoortse Courant (Dutch regional newspaper)
February 13, 2005
NIJKERK – Aristakes from Nijkerk will perform in front of at least thirty
thousand listeners. The singer was asked by the Royal Dutch Football
Association (KNVB) to sing the Armenian national anthem during the
international football match Netherlands-Armenia.
With this, the singer of Armenian heritage, will be the center of attention
on March 30 during the international match that will be played in Eindhoven
in the stadium of football club PSV.
An employee of the KNVB asked Aristakes whether he would like to sing the
Armenian national anthem at the start of the match.
“I immediately sat behind a piano and played the song. He was instantly
captivated,” says the Nijkerkian singer. Aristakes promptly suggested to
sing the Dutch national anthem as well.
“In the current discussions on integration, I think this is a chance to show
how you can adapt yourself in a foreign country”, says the Armenian.
Whether the Dutch anthem will indeed sound from his throat on March 30 is
still to be confirmed by the KNVB. The singer is not nervous for his
contribution to the international football match. “During the anthem usually
only the players are shown.”
Aristakes Yessayan has been living in the Netherlands since 1956. In the
1980s, the singer born in Greece scored two Top-40 hits with the songs
“Diamond Forever” and “Don’t Wanna Live Without You”.
This week the Foundation Square Promotion Nijkerk, organiser of events in
downtown Nijkerk, announced that Aristakes is the new chairman of the
organization.
He replaces Bert van ‘t Hazeveld who wants to have more free time for his
administrative function at football club NSC.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

STAATSCOURANT (DUTCH GOVERNMENT GAZETTE) NO. 17
Tuesday 25 January 2005
Armenian Auschwitz
‘This God, to whom you want pray, does not exist. Where was he when the Jews
in Poland had dig their own graves? Where was he when the Nazi’s played with
the skulls of Jewish children? If he exists and he has been silent, he is a
murderer just like Hitler.’ These are the words of Joseph Shapiro, main
character from the novel The Penitent of Isaac Bashevis Singer. They are in
fact also the words of Richard Rubinstein in his book entitled After
Auschwitz: ‘Auschwitz killed God’.
This week, it is 60 years ago that the concentration camp Auschwitz was
liberated. Was Auschwitz indeed that turning point in the mental history of
humanity, about which Joseph Shapiro and Richard Rubinstein speak? The
moment when the belief in God, and therewith the existence of God, was no
longer justifiable? No matter how strange it may sound, I would like for
this to be true. I would like that no earlier horrors of the same level as
Auschwitz had taken place, by which God or a another human unifying
universal faith would lose its credibility once and for all. But this is not
so simple.
This year is also the ‘jubilee year’ of another horror. This one took place
not only almost 30 years before Auschwitz, but therefore also served as a
model for Auschwitz. It was Hitler himself who in 1939, briefly before the
bloody attack on Poland, made clear to his army commanders that Germany
should not be afraid of world opinion. Because, he said, ‘Wer redet heute
noch von der Vernichtung der Armenier?’ (Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?). How it is possible that, different from
Auschwitz, the massacres of the Armenians, which were committed under
command and responsibility of the Turkish government in the period of
1915­17, can still be denied by the perpetrator who continues to get away
with it internationally? On 24 April 1915, thousands of Armenian
politicians, priests and intellectuals were arrested in some large Turkish
cities and were in part directly assassinated and in part deported. It was
the start signal for the deportation and then eradication of the largest
part of the Armenian population in the Turkish Empire. Of the two million
Armenians living there, according to prominent historians certainly
1,200,000 died in concentration camps, by massacre or by starvation. In that
process German diplomats and consultants were ­ Turkey had chosen the side
of Germany in the first World War I ­ actively involved.
The Turkish minister directly responsible for the Armenian Auschwitz, Talaat
Pasha, did not make a particular secret out of it. As such he asked the
American ambassador at that time, Henry Morgenthau, the following: ‘I wish
that you would get the American Life Insurance companies to send us a
complete list of Armenian policy holders. They are practically all dead now
and have left no heirs to collect the money. It of course all escheats to
the state. The government is beneficiary now. Will you do so?’ The request
has not been granted. But the fact remains that numerous streets and squares
of modern Turkish cities are named after Talaat Pasha. The fact is also that
the EU talks with Turkey about accession without having required the
recognition of her Auschwitz in advancee. I am deeply ashamed as an
European.
René F.W. Diekstra
————————————-
STAATSCOURANT (DUTCH GOVERNMENT GAZETTE) NO. 23
Wednesday, 2 February 2005
Members of Parliament condemn Armenian genocide
By André Rouvoet
In the Dutch Government Gazette of 25 January René Diekstra, under the title
‘Armenian Auschwitz’, wrote about the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. He
rightly concludes that the EU will talk with Turkey about accession without
requiring the recognition of her Auschwitz in advance. For that Diekstra is
deeply ashamed as a European.
I can imagine his feeling of shame well. Like Diekstra many factions in the
House of Representatives were very disappointed about the lack of the
requirement for the recognition of this Genocide by Turkey in the
conclusions of the European Council of December 2004. Preceding that summit,
many factions had expressly called for such a requirement.
In the debate on the conclusions of the European summit, where much
attention was given to the reached agreement with respect to the start of
the negotiations with Turkey, I therefore introduced a motion in which the
government is requested, within the framework of the intensive political and
cultural dialogue, which will be conducted parallel to the accession
negotiations with Turkey, to continuously and expressly raise the
recognition of the Armenian genocide. Nevertheless, a (new) European Member
State must be required to deal with its own history honestly. Minister Bot
welcomed this motion, which was unanimously accepted by the House of
Representatives.
Unfortunately it is true that the House of Representatives cannot add the
requirement of recognition to the conclusions of the European Council
through a motion. Meanwhile, however, this parliamentary pronouncement is of
great and fundamental significance. It is namely the first time that the
Dutch House of Representatives explicitly speaks of ‘the Armenian genocide’.
Whereas the European Parliament has already done this, the term ‘genocide’
was so far always avoided in the Dutch parliament. The fact that the
parliament has now unanimously sided with a motion in which the events of
1915 to 1917 are actually labelled as genocide and the fact that the Dutch
government has also welcomed this motion is of great significance for the
Armenian community world wide.
Moreover, in the debate several spokesmen also referred to the massacres of
the Assyrian people. Although the motion does not mention this issue, when
asked, the Minister of Foreign Affairs insured me that he will interpret the
motion in such a way that in this also the Assyrians are included. Therefore
both horrors will be raised in the negotiations with Turkey.
I am of the same opinion as Diekstra that justice must be done to the entire
history. The acceptance of my motion has the chance that this will
effectively happen in the coming time. Either way, it has been brought a
little closer.
The author is Chairman of the Christian Union faction in the House of
Representatives.
–Boundary_(ID_iClox6BsAwI4J3C4HgcVXA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL
50 Khanjian Str., Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Tel: (3741) 551582, 571798
Fax: (3741) 574639
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:
PRESS RELEASE
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a non-governmental, humanitarian
organization that has worked actively for more than 50 years to create a
safer and more dignified life for refugees and internally displaced persons
(IDPs), regardless of their race, religion, nationality or political
convictions. We work for the rights of refugees and IDPs, assisting with
food, shelter and education – and offering counseling on repatriation.
In Armenia, NRC has invested more that 10 million USD in refugee-targeted
projects since 1995. These include primarily housing construction, but also
school construction and rehabilitation, construction of drinking and
irrigation water pipelines, as well as human rights education and an IDP
mapping survey. So far, NRC has provided new homes for nearly 1000 refugee
families in Armenia.
_____________________________________________
On February 8-th The Norwegian Refugee Council handed over 18 keys to new
stone houses to refugee families in the villages of Deghdzut, Kanachut,
Noyakert and Sis in Ararat marz. For the past 14 years all the families had
lived in uninhabitable constructions, like old school building, bathhouse,
metal containers, half-constructed houses in miserable conditions.
Each house will have a plot of land for gardens.
The project was completed in cooperation with the Department of Migration
and Refugees and Ararat Marzpet’s office and village mayors.For construction
of house in Sis village a completely new design was developed toghether with
USDA Experts.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Oil-for-food was money for jam
New York correspondent David Nason
Australian, Australia
Feb 14 2005
IN an Armenian community newsletter circulated in New York in 2002,
Benon Sevan, the career diplomat accused of presiding over massive
corruption in the UN’s now defunct oil-for-food program in Iraq,
complained that he operated in the world’s toughest neighourhoods. “I
have no choice but to deal with the people involved,” he said at
the time.
In the end that may be the only defence left to the 68-year-old
Sevan who, on all the currently available evidence, stands guilty
of allowing the biggest aid program in UN history to descend into a
cesspit of patronage, bribes and kickbacks – a disaster that provided
Saddam Hussein with a secret, illegal income stream worth possibly
billions of dollars.
Exactly how much cash Saddam and his henchmen managed to rort from
dodgy UN-approved oil contracts between 1996 and 2003, and where
all that cash went, are key questions in the multitude of UN and US
congressional inquiries into oil-for-food now under way.
The biggest fear is that Saddam managed to channel large chunks
into the pockets of terrorist outfits such as Hamas, Hezbollah and
al-Qa’ida, a frightening concern given that some estimates say upwards
of $US5 billion ($6.5billion) was skimmed.
There are other compelling questions in the oil-for-food case too, like
why Kojo Annan, the son of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, continued
to be paid $US30,000 a year for five years by Cocetna Inspections,
a Swiss company holding a lucrative oil-for-food contract to monitor
the humanitarian aid arriving in Iraq, when he no longer worked for
it? And what role, if any, did the Secretary-General play in Cocetna
getting its contract in the first place?
For Australia also there are potential implications. Australian
wheat formed a significant part of food imports to Iraq under the
oil-for-food program and there have been allegations – all of them
denied by the Australian Wheat Board – of kickbacks worth $120 million
to keep US wheat out.
The answers to such questions will have a big bearing on how radical
the US push to reform or even abandon the UN becomes, but for Sevan,
who climbed from humble beginnings in Cyprus to become a trusted senior
official in charge of both the oil-for-food program and security at
all UN offices around the world post September 11, the catastrophe is
personalised by the expectation he soon will face corruption charges
of his own.
While he denies any criminal wrongdoing, this month’s interim report
of the UN’s independent inquiry headed by former US Federal Reserve
chairman Paul Volcker confirmed allegations first raised in 2004
that Sevan repeatedly lobbied Saddam officials in the late 1990s
to provide contracts to a Swiss-based company run by small-time oil
trader Fahkry Abdelnour.
Sevan did himself no favours when he told Volcker’s investigators
he and Abdelnour hardly knew each other and had spoken just once –
a fabrication quickly exposed by a check of his UN phone records and
electronic diaries. It got worse when Abdelnour confessed to paying an
illegal $US160,000 surchage into an Iraqi-controlled Jordanian bank
account once the 11-million-barrel oil concession Sevan had secured
on his behalf was sold.
Not surprisingly, there is now intense interest in the financing of
properties Sevan owns in Manhattan, New Jersey, the expensive upstate
New York district of Rye and in the elite Hamptons precinct of Long
Island Sound.
Also troubling investigators is a mysterious $US160,000 deposit in
one of Sevan’s US bank accounts.
Sevan claims the cash came from the Cypriot aunt who raised him as a
child, but in a twist worthy of a John Le Carre thriller, the aunt fell
down an elevator shaft in Nicosia last June – police say accidently –
and died before she could be questioned.
In his report, Volcker expressed doubts that the aunt had the means
to provide Sevan with funds of such magnitude, a view supported in
Cyprus last week by editor, publisher and fellow Armenian Matthew
der Parthogh, whose father Georges is one of Sevan’s oldest friends.
“She (the aunt) had just a small flat and she lived on a pension, so
I doubt very much the money came from her,” der Parthogh said. “She
was a public servant who never married and was quite frugal, but I
still don’t think it is possible.”
More revealing is der Parthogh’s view that Sevan may have fallen
victim to his own deceptions.
“Many times Benon was in Cyprus and told us he did things for the UN in
Iraq and other places that in the West would be considered unethical,”
de Parthogh explained.
“He made no apologies for it. He said you had to know how to manoeuvre
your way through bureaucracy and know when to turn a blind eye to
make sure things got done.
“In Iraq he always said his job was to get humanitarian aid to the
suffering people, so he did what had to done. I don’t think Benon is
crooked but maybe he was not so bright sometimes.”
Curiously it was to Australia, not Cyprus, that Sevan fled when the
first whiff of scandal about his oil lobbying for Abdelnour emerged
in 2004, ironically in the newly free Baghdad newspaper Al-Mada which
named 270 individuals who had received vouchers to buy Iraqi oil at
cut-rate prices.
Among those named on official documents Al-Mada obtained were then
Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, British Labor MP George
Galloway, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and a small army
of Russian politicians.
When this extraordinary tale was picked up by the international media,
Sevan took off, holing up at a luxury resort at Noosa in Queensland. A
month later he returned to New York and announced his retirement.
Australian ambassador to the UN John Dauth said last week he understood
Sevan had visited a close friend in Queensland. But he said he had
not had any requests from investigators for information about Sevan’s
movements in Australia.
Despite his retirement Sevan remains a UN staffer with full diplomatic
immunity, courtesy of a token annual $US1 salary agreement that
ensures his continued co-operation with the Volcker inquiry.
However, Annan has vowed that if a prosecutor establishes a criminal
case against Sevan, he will remove the diplomatic immunity in order
for justice to take its course.
What would happen to Annan’s immunity should Volcker nail him in
regard to Cocetna is unclear, but the most likely scenario for
Sevan is charges laid by the Manhattan district attorney who has
been given copies of all relevant files and is conducting a criminal
investigation.

Azeri civilian reportedly wounded by Armenian sniper
Lider TV, Baku
13 Feb 05
The cease-fire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia has been
broken again. Our correspondent reports from Karabakh that Armenian
snipers wounded a resident of the village of Tartar’s Qapanli, Farman
Mehdiyev, while he was grazing his cattle.
Mehdiyev, wounded to his arm, was taken to Tartar’s central hospital.

Georgia not to redirect cargo to Armenia, envoy tells Azeri agency
Trend news agency
11 Feb 05
Baku, 11 February: The Georgian government fully guarantees that the
Georgian-bound cargo in transit via Azerbaijan will not be redirected
to any third country, the Georgian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Zurab
Gumberidze, has told Trend.
Gumberidze said Azerbaijani officials and customs officers have been
authorized to look into the reports about transport cargo routes and
also to collect information about them.
“The Georgian side is waiting for the results of the investigation. We
hope it will soon be completed and the companies involved in shipping
cargo to Armenia, that is if there were any, will be punished,” he
said. Gumberidze said the issue should be brought to an end, because
the piling of goods on the border is detrimental not only to Georgia,
but to TRACECA as a whole.

The Independent, UK
February 12, 2005
CLASSICAL: BBC PHILHARMONIC
by Stuart Price
The young Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan renews his
association with the BBC Philharmonic this evening, in an all-Russian
programme helmed by Gianandrea Noseda (left), the orchestra’s
principal conductor and a guest conductor at Valery Gergiev’s Kirov
in St Petersburg. The 19-year- old is soloist in Shostakovich’s
Violin Concerto No 1, a work written for the Jewish violinist David
Oistrakh in 1948 that remained unperformed while Stalin was alive;
its quoting of Jewish melodies was a comment on the anti-semitism of
the Soviet state. The concert opens with Shostakovich’s orchestration
of the Prelude to Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera, Khovanshchina, and
concludes with Scriabin’s Symphony No 3, The Divine Poem. In a talk
at 6.30pm, the Independent’s Lynne Walker is in conversation with the
music writer David Nice about the work of Scriabin.
Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley St, Manchester (0161-907 9000)
tonight, 7.30pm, pounds 7-pounds 28

Pan Armenian Network, Armenia
Feb 13 2005
“GASPROM” FEARS TO LOSE ARMENIA
The management of the Russian gas monopolist finds it necessary to be
involved in the construction of Iran – Armenia gas pipeline not to
lose control of the situation.
Negotiations between “Gasprom” and Turkmenian government can have a
negative impact on the price policy of the Russian gas monopolist.
Official Ashgabat has refused to sell gas to “Gasprom” for the same
price as before and the new prices offered by Turkmenistan were not
convenient for Russians. The failure of this deal will decrease the
income of “Gasprom” in 2005. It is believed that the State will not
allow “Gasprom” to solve its problems at the cost of local consumers.
Analysts suppose that the problem will be solved by means of
increasing export prices. It should be reminded that the head of
“Armrosgasprom” company recently confirmed that if “Gasprom” again
reviews its price policy, the rise in prices will be inevitable in
Armenia.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkmenistan sold gas to “Gasprom” for 44 dollars
per 1000 cubic meters. “Gasprom” resold the gas for 55-77 dollars
covering the costs for transit through the territory of Kazakhstan.
It is quite possible that at times “Gasprom” supplied Armenia with
the same Turkmenian gas which we could purchase without mediators as
it was done early 90s. Conditions offered by Turkmenbashi were much
more favorable than those currently dictated by “Gasprom”. The
Russian monopolist has forced out not only foreign exporters but also
Russian “Itera”. Turkmenistan will be very glad to supply gas
directly to Armenia but it is impossible due to communication
problems. Ashgabat seeks for alternative means of export and they
evidently mean that since firstly they looked quite confident in
negotiations with Russians and secondly they are going to increase
their gas production by 20 percents.
Turkmenistan still has only one alternative to the western route of
gas transportation. That is the gas pipeline to Iran. In 2004 about
five milliard cubic meters of gas were supplied through this pipeline
but the diameter allows to pump one half as much again. Turkmenistan
sells gas to Iran for 42 dollars, that is to say a quarter less than
the price that Russians offer to their strategic partner – Armenia.
For today the only way of supplying Turkmenian gas to Armenia is the
northern route passing through Russia. But this situation can change
after the construction of Iran – Armenia gas pipeline. The management
of “Gasprom” cannot help worrying about this perspective. The
emergence of an alternative to Russian gas in the region is menacing
not only for the commercial interests of “Gasprom” but also the
political interest of Moscow.
During the recent discussion held in the upper chamber of the Russian
parliament the deputy president of “Gasprom” joint stock company
Alexander Ryazanov called the authorities to sanction the
participation of “Gasprom” in the construction of Iran – Armenia gas
pipeline since it is the only way the keep control of the situation.
“If we do not take part in the construction of Iran – Armenia gas
pipeline no one knows where that gas will go”, Ryazanov said.
According to him the Armenian – Iranian project can compete with the
“Blue stream” project on which “Gasprom” sets high hopes. At the same
time Ryazanov did not ignore Armenian market which “Gasprom” can
lose. But Mr. Ryazanov anyway did not state his main worry. It is
known that the Russian gas monopolist is extremely worried about the
possible perspective of Iranian gas pipeline extension to Ukraine
through Georgia and Black Sea. The emergence of a competitor in the
European gas market may have extremely undesirable consequences for
“Gasprom”.
It is notable that yet not long ago the management of “Gasprom”
showed great caution in talking about the possibility of joining the
construction of Iran – Armenia gas pipeline. In July, 2004 the same
Alexander Ryazanov announced in Yerevan that the payback terms of the
project are above the norms accepted by “Gasprom”. “Gasprom” prefers
short-term investments but the conflict between commercial and
political interests are always solved in favor of political
interests. As it seems the political decision has already been made
since the second figure in the company confidently speaks about the
necessity of joining the project. It should be noted that the
technical-economical justification of the investments was finished
long ago so in case of the final approval of the idea by Kremlin the
involvement of “Gasprom” in the project will take just a few weeks.
Maybe the only thing that can prevent that is the possible
intensification of the conflict between Iran and the United States.
Artyom Yerkanyan
–Boundary_(ID_xOiZedHCxWEa2Cx+aNeEvg)–

Former Lebanon Premier Hariri Killed in Beirut Blast (Update6)
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — A bomb blast in the road by Beirut’s seafront
hotel district killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in
the center of the capital, his office said today.
Hariri, a billionaire businessman-turned-politician, was dead on
arrival at the city’s American Hospital, the state-run news agency
said. Nine people died and more than 100 were injured in the blast,
the agency said on its Web site. The explosion left a crater at least
two meters deep and 10 meters wide.
“This is an irrecoverable loss,” Marwan Iskandar, a Beirut- based
economist, said in a telephone interview. “Rafik Hariri believed in
Lebanon’s economic revival and helped attract international investments
to the city center, the place where the bomb was placed today.”
The bomb’s devastation is the biggest since the end of the Lebanese
civil war in 1990, in which close to 100,000 people lost their
lives. The blast sent glass shards flying three blocks from its center,
according to a witness contacted by Bloomberg News.
Hariri, who was 61, served five times as Lebanon’s prime minister and
spearheaded the country’s postwar reconstruction effort, pushing the
country into debt. He had a close relationship with Saudi Arabia’s King
Fahd and France’s president, Jacques Chirac. He clashed with Syria,
which has about 15,000 soldiers in the country, before stepping down
last year.
Syrian Troops
Hariri resigned in October because of differences with Lebanon’s
Syrian-backed president, Emile Lahoud. The U.S. and France last year
co-sponsored a United Nations resolution on Lebanon demanding that
Syria withdraw its forces from the country.
Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, condemned the killing, calling it a
“terrible crime,” according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.
Al-Jazeera and other televisions stations showed video of burning
cars, including one with a man on fire trying to get out, and large
rubble-strewn areas. Two former ministers were injured in the blast,
Agence France-Presse reported. At least 20 cars were set on fire in
the blast, the Associated Press said.
Hariri is credited for attracting Arab investors and tourists to
Lebanon, which has a debt equal to more than 160 percent of gross
domestic product.
“His death could lead to a flight of capital, ruin the tourism industry
and put pressure on the Lebanese pound,” Iskandar said.
The former prime minister was the majority shareholder in Solidere,
the country’s biggest real estate company. Solidere turned war-torn
downtown Beirut, the center of fighting during the 15-year civil war,
into a tourist and commercial district.
HSBC Building
HSBC Holdings Plc’s head office in Lebanon was damaged in the blast,
according to the bank’s Dubai spokesman, Steve Martin. About 100
people work in the head office, he said. No one was hurt.
“All our staff are accounted for,” Richard Beck, an HSBC spokesman
in London, said. “There are no injuries although there may be some
issues of people with minor cuts.”
He said the damage to the building, which is located near the hotels,
is superficial and “there is no reason to believe that HSBC is
a target.”
Born in the southern city of Sidon to a poor family, Hariri was a
Sunni Muslim with seven children, according to his Web site. Hariri,
who grow up in poverty, moved to Saudi Arabia in 1965 to work as a
school teacher, where he made his fortune by rebuilding palaces for the
Saudi royal family. He made a fortune in construction in the kingdom
and owns Saudi Oger Ltd. He and his family are worth $4.3 billion,
Forbes magazine said last year.
The Lebanese government declared three days of official mourning.