AFP/Beirut
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian was greeted by thousands of angry demonstrators as he arrived in Lebanon yesterday to discuss with the local Armenian community plans to establish ties with Turkey.
The demonstrators—men, women and children—carried placards that read “No to the agreements” and “The blood of Armenians not up for sale” as they marched outside Sarkisian’s hotel on the outskirts of Beirut.
Sarkisian’s brief stop in Beirut is part of a week-long international trip aimed at calming concerns among the Armenian diaspora over Turkish-Armenian efforts to normalise relations.
But such plans have angered many in Lebanon’s 140,000-strong Armenian community, mostly made up of the descendants of those who survived massacres in eastern Anatolia under Ottoman rule almost a century ago.
“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 neighbourhood of Burj Hammud.
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 said.
“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.
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