Muslim world attitude toward Armenia should be changed

Peculiarity of these communities is that language and national spirit maintenance is at a higher level than in other communities of the Diaspora. However, despite a kind of recession observed during the recent years and emigration, the centers of religious, political and sports keep functioning. Besides, Lebanon has a distinctive feature. Here, the Armenian community is entitled to have deputies in the parliament, propose candidacies for high posts.

Unfortunately, during the recent 40 years political and economic shocks in the region negatively affected the life of the Armenian community. As result of "Egyptian socialism" building in 1960-ies and civil war, the Armenian community reduced by two thirds. Along came the Islamic revolution in Iran and the Iran-Iraq war. The U.S. intrusion into Iraq and Israel's last year attack on Lebanon ranks among the misfortunes. Today, the Armenian community of Iraq struggles for existence while Armenians of Lebanon are concerned about their future.

Lebanon is a UN member state and participates in all discussions on Karabakh process. We highlight position of Lebanon as a member state of League of Arab States and Islamic Conference Organization, which includes Azerbaijan and its supporters. On the whole, we are content with the Lebanon-Armenia cooperation in international structures.

It's actually one of important fields and we should mobilize efforts to unite the Foreign Ministry, Diasporan organizations and individuals, who achieved success in politics and business, for anti-Azeri propaganda. The point is that since 1988 Azerbaijan has been trying to mislead the Islam word and represent the Karabakh issue as a religious conflict, picturing Armenians as "fanatics" and "terrorists", who fight against kind and peaceful Muslims. Baku's activities resulted in adoption of several anti-Armenian resolutions by thew OIC and other international organizations, which made one-sided decisions through unawareness. Some Arab states, including the Saudi Arabia and Pakistan do not establish diplomatic relations with Armenia. Hence, it's essential to prepare materials, representing the Karabakh problem as the issue of self-determination (like the Palestinian one) and circulate them in Middle East and Muslim world. Armenia should be represented as a peaceful and tolerant state to Islamic countries, whose cultural heritage is respected. It would be useful to mention about reconstruction of the Blue Mosque in Yerevan and a mosque in Shushi, protection of Turkmen cemetery in Argavand. Such materials if showed by Al Jazeera and other TV Channels may change attitude about Armenia. Armenian organizations and individuals from Diaspora can make a big contribution to the mission.

"Lebanon is a small but very important state…" Austrian Chancellor Metternich said in 19th century. Lebanon being small in size is the hub of interests of the world powers. It can be explained by the strategic location of the state, which is multiconfessional and multinational, its neighborhood with Israel and a number of other reasons. Strong interest towards Lebanon is whipped by the forthcoming presidential elections perceived as opposition of west-oriented politicians and nationalists. Both sides are presented by political figures who understand that the resolution of the issue should not be sought beyond the borders of the country. Presidential election is the domestic affair. We are hopeful that the peaceful approach will dominate and Armenia's friendly state will overcome the crisis in accord with the Constitution.

Lebanon has two neighbors - Israel and Syria. It would be unnecessary to remind about the Lebanese-Israeli relations. It's natural that Syria, which exceeds the neighbor states in territory and population, plays an important role in Lebanon. Besides, the two states speak a common language and have historical ties.