Saturday, September 09, 2006

Turkey and Lebanese Armenians

~ 1.5 million Armenians were massacred almost a 100 years ago. Shouldn't the Lebanese of Armenian descent have a say in whether Turkish troops deploy in Lebanon, considering that Turkey till this day denies such a genocide ever occured?


posted by Lazarus, 1:50 AM

4 Comments:

  • Laz and Ghassan,

    Honestly I am lost here. Initially i held the same views as you two and probably i still do. However, there was an article about the two movements that compromise the current Armenian political scene worldwide in Annahar by Jihad Zen last week. According to him, the first movement wants to reconcile with its past and look towards the future the same way Turkey and Greece reconciled(There troops might be side by side in the South). The second movement refuses to reconcile and is dogmatic rather than pragmatic. The latter group compromise the majority of Armenians in Armenia and Lebanon while those belonging to the former are mainly Armenians in Europe and USA. Mr. Zen believes that the Armenians in Lebanon should endorse the reconciliatory approach.

    Having read this article I'm starting to think that maybe Mr. Zen is right. However, what if the Lebanese Armenians refuse to reconcile? Should the state ignore their feelings? Its a bit tricky keeping in mind that given our current relations with Syria, Turkey is one of Lebanon's most strategic allies in the region.

    By Blogger AbdulKarim, at 5:51 PM  

  • Pardon me, but may I ask what exactly is the opinion of Lebanese of Armenian descent on this matter?

    By Blogger Solomon2, at 7:30 PM  

  • solomon2, they had a protest against it yesterday i believe.

    ghassan, AK: although ghassan has a point when he states that turkish participation is not essential, i am not insisting that they not be part of unifil-2. i would, however, at least like to see internal discourse on the very matter.

    By Blogger Lazarus, at 7:38 PM  

  • Abdulkarim,

    SA
    You mentioned that Armenians should reconcile. Don't you think it's kind of odd to put the burden of "reconciliation" on the victims as opposed to the perpetrators?

    It creates some false notion of equal burden.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:01 PM  

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