Lebanese Armenians oppose Turkish troops in UN force
Saturday, September 2, 2006
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Several hundred Lebanese Armenians protested outside U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday against the planned participation by Turkish troops in a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
The protestors called on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a letter to “hear the voice of Armenians who are an active force in Lebanon” and bar the soldiers from joining the U.N. force, UNIFIL.
“Countries that contribute to the peacekeeping force must be neutral. This is not the case of Turkey, which has signed a security and military cooperation accord with Israel,” the protestors said in their open letter.
The protestors unfurled banners reading “Turkish atrocities in Lebanon disqualify them for peacekeeping missions.” The slogans referred to the killings of Armenians during World War I at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and the concurrent Ottoman occupation of Lebanon.
Lebanon hosts the largest community of Armenians in the Arab world.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Several hundred Lebanese Armenians protested outside U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday against the planned participation by Turkish troops in a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
The protestors called on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a letter to “hear the voice of Armenians who are an active force in Lebanon” and bar the soldiers from joining the U.N. force, UNIFIL.
“Countries that contribute to the peacekeeping force must be neutral. This is not the case of Turkey, which has signed a security and military cooperation accord with Israel,” the protestors said in their open letter.
The protestors unfurled banners reading “Turkish atrocities in Lebanon disqualify them for peacekeeping missions.” The slogans referred to the killings of Armenians during World War I at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and the concurrent Ottoman occupation of Lebanon.
Lebanon hosts the largest community of Armenians in the Arab world.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 10:54 PM
2 Comments:
Actually this is not the case. The demo took place in Beirut and was organized jointly by the three traditional Armenian political parties.
I certainly agree with Pokr Mher. It should have said "Several hundred Lebanese Armenians protested outside U.N. headquarters in Beirut" and not "New York". Bad reporting by Turkish Daily News. It also throws doubt on the number of the potesters. It is probably much higher than "several hundreds" reported.
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