Lebanese-Armenians Rally against Turkish Peacekeepers in Lebanon

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Martyrs' square is a witness to Turkish inhumanity"; "A murderer cannot become a peacekeeper"; "Turks have passed by here and left behind death and destruction"; "Dear Lebanese: the Turkish dictionary does not include the words 'Justice' and 'peace'"; "Genocide, massacre, deportation, annihilation: Turkish definition of peace"; "Turkey is not welcome in Lebanon". These were some of the banners written in Arabic, Armenian and English carried by the Lebanese-Armenians who converged at Martyrs' Square in the center of Beirut October 16. They came to protest the deployment of Turkish troops as part of the peace-enforcing UNIFIL troops in Lebanon, reports Groong.



Yesterday afternoon, thousands of Armenians, young and old, gathered in downtown Beirut to express their rejection of the Turkish presence in Lebanon. They came from all corners of Lebanon and met at the exact spot where the Ottoman Turks hanged many Lebanese intellectuals in 1916. They came to remind both the Lebanese and Turkish governments that there is an important community in Lebanon that will not forgot the butchery that Turks committed not only to the Armenians but also to the Lebanese. In addition to the Lebanese and Armenian flags, some carried the French flag with banners saying "Merci, France" for voting on a bill that criminalizes Genocide denial.