Press Release from the Canadian Lebanese Coordinating Council (LCCC)
Toronto – Canada,
Phone & Fax (905) 272 9389
NewsLine - News bulletins around the Clock (905) 270 0565
Web site
http://www.10452lccc.com
E.mail: clhrf@yahoo.com
&
Phoenicia@hotmail.com
September 11/ 2006
For Immediate Release
Rights & Concerns of the Lebanese Armenian Community must be Honored
The LCCC strongly denounces the Lebanese Government's unjust refusal to call off the Turkish Army's participation in the UN Peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) mandated by the UN Security Council to deploy in South Lebanon in the aftermath of the devastating 34-day long Israeli-Hezbollah war. The denied request was made officially by Lebanon's Armenian community in all its denominational, political and social sectors and representatives. The same appeal was made to the UN General Secretary, Mr. Kofi Annan.
The government's refusal of the request is not merely a harsh response of
indifference and an act of condescendence in dealing with one of Lebanon's basic
eighteen communities that make up the multicultural and multiethnic Lebanese
society, but it is in fact a blatant infringement on a central article of the
Lebanese constitution that states: "No authority violating the common
co-existence character shall be legitimate".
Alienating the Armenian community, ignoring its genuine concerns and keeping a
blind eye on its painful history hinders Lebanon's national unity, indicates
plainly and sadly that the Saniora government is ruling with the same oppressive
strategies of marginalization and discrimination inflicted by the Baathist
Syrian regime on numerous Lebanese communities during Syria's 29-year long
horrible occupation that came to an end 16 months ago.
The Lebanese Armenian's community cry for justice is well understood and well
supported by the majority of the Lebanese people. This well-respected community
does not believe that the Turks should be allowed under any given circumstances
to be a part in any peacekeeping mission before their state admits publicly the
genocidal massacres the Turkish Ottoman rulers committed in 1915 against the
Armenian people. 1.5 million Armenians were brutally murdered in cold blood by
the Ottoman Turkish Army in 1915 and many territories of their country were
confiscated and still are.
This is besides the fact that the Turkish Army is not qualified to play a
neutral role between the parties involved in the current conflict unfolding on
the Lebanese soil. The Turkish Parliament has made the participation of its
troops in UNFIL conditional on not taking part in any assignment aiming to
disarm Hezbollah.
Meanwhile the Lebanese people did not yet forget the hardships, oppression,
starvation, displacement, torture and humiliation committed by the Ottomans
during their 400 years of bloody and criminal occupation of Lebanon and
neighboring countries that ended with World War I.
The LCCC appeals to both the Lebanese Government and the United Nations to call
off immediately the participation of the Turkish Army in the peacekeeping
mission of UNIFIL in Lebanon, and to block any other UN similar task involving
the Turks before the Turkish Government publicly and officially admits the
Genocide Massacres the Ottomans committed in 1915 against the Armenian people
and accepts all ethical, moral and legal responsibilities.
The LCCC affirms the fact that any marginalization of any of Lebanon's eighteen
distinct cultural, ethnic and religious communities is in effect a flagrant
infringement on the Lebanese constitution, the principle of shared living,
consensual democracy, national unity and the UN Human Rights Charter .
We salute the Lebanese Armenian community in its longing for justice and fully support its legitimate request submitted for both the Lebanese government and the UN.
For the LCCC
Elias Bejjani/Chairman
Toni Mouanis/Coordinator
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*The lccc is a
Federal umbrella for the following nonprofit municipal, provincial and federal
Canadian registered groups:
Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation, (CLHRF), Canadian Lebanese Free
Patriotic Movement (FPM-Canada), Phoenician Club of Mississauga (PCOM),/Canadian
Phoenician Community Services Club (CPCSC),Canadian Lebanese Christian Heritage
Club (CLCHC),World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU)-Canadian Chapter.
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For more information,
please contact us at one of the following e-mail addresses:
clhrf@yahoo.com or
Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Web Sites Related to the above
co signers
www.10452lccc.com
www.clhrf.com