The important role played by the Armenian community in Lebanon’s political arena since its independence was taken into account when the new Lebanese government distributed the posts; Three members of this community were thus given influential positions on the internal as well as on the external relations of the country of the Cedar. Houry Der-Sakisian was appointed Comptroller General of Lebanon. On the diplomatic front, Ara Khatchadourian was appointed
Wally Sarkeesian Touring Historical Armenian Village ANJAR Lebanon Video
Watch how Armenian Turn Lebanon swamp and desert into Greenland, Anjar the Armenian from Mount Mossadegh.
If you saw the movie The Promise, then you will understand the history of this village.
Nearly 250 men took part in the defense, fighting off Turkish armies in June 1915.[1] The Armenians had refused deportation and fled to the highest mountain in the town, and from July to September 1915 they defended themselves until French ships rescued them.[1] Starting in 1918, when Sanjak of Alexandretta came under French control, six Armenian villages returned to their homes.
In 1932 a monument was erected at the top of the mountain to commemorate the event.[10] On 29 June 1939, following an agreement between France and Turkey, the province was given to Turkey. Afterwards Armenians from six of the villages emigrated from Hatay, while some of the residents of Vakıflı village chose to stay.[11] Vakıflı is the only remaining ethnic Armenian village in Turkey,[12][13] with a population only 140 Turkish-Armenians. Most who left Hatay in 1939 immigrated to Lebanon where they resettled in the town of Anjar. Today, the town of Anjar is divided into six districts, each commemorating one of the villages of Musa Dagh.
As the French squads came to the rescue of the remaining survivors, the chief priest was quoted to say: “The evil only happened … to enable God to show us His goodness
Among worldwide Armenian genocide observances, Lebanon’s is first among equals
By Nabih Bulos,
The thump of the bass drum reverberated through the neighborhood.
It was the cue for the dozens of young scouts in two-tone uniforms to take their positions in a procession through Beirut’s Christian quarter to the Patriarchate of the Armenian Catholic Church.
The solemn march Monday afternoon marked the 102nd anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide, which began in 1915 and resulted in the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians.
Turkey has long disputed that a genocide took place, arguing that the killings can’t be separated from the historical context of global upheaval during World War I, and that many Turks also were killed. But most historians outside Turkey describe an orchestrated effort of ethnic cleansing by the Ottoman Turkish government that meets the definition of genocide.
around an ornate column topped by a cross that stood at the center of a courtyard as a monument to the genocide.
Nearby, a few of the hardier boys raised poles with the Armenian blue, orange and red flag fluttering alongside Lebanon’s flag. Some of their classmates’ faces turned a shade of scarlet as they blew trumpets raised to the sky.
“Wherever there are Armenians, there will be this ceremony.… It’s a duty. They come show respect and appreciation,” said Aram Karadaghlian, 31, one of the event’s organizers.
The stick on his jacket lapel featured an infinity sign around the number 102 underlined by a phrase in elegant Armenian script which declared: “On the verge of the new century, but with the same commitment as the previous one.”
It was a reference to the continuing struggle to keep the memory of the genocide alive, he said. “It’s about remembrance, because we don’t forget.”
His sentiment was echoed by Mehran Najarian, a 44-year old businessman who had brought his family to the ceremony.
“In this country we have the privilege to be able to express ourselves,” he said. “Each community does this here.”
“I’m the third generation of Armenians here. And as you can see the fourth is standing in front of you,” he said, turning to his 10-year-old son, Sarkis.
Although there were commemorations for this event all over the world, said Samvel Mkrtchyan, Armenia’s ambassador to Lebanon, “the Armenian community in Lebanon is the most important.”
Lebanon’s more than 100,000 Armenians “are the descendants of those who perished in the beginning of the 20th century,” he said.
“Those orphans and impoverished families found refuge in Lebanon and they grew from the ashes and rebuilt their lives and became one its most important communities.”
Later, as night fell on the city, thousands descended on the downtown district to Martyrs’ Square, which had been named to remember Lebanese who had been executed there during Ottoman rule in 1931.
Rows of plastic chairs had been laid out before a stage ringed by powerful lights and a large screen displaying “100+2.”
Looking on were a dozen or so leather-clad members of the Armenian Brigade Motorcycle Club.
They would soon provide a high-revving escort for the march, tailing the marches out of the square with the motorcycles that now stood arrayed in a neat row to the side, their chrome gleaming from the spotlights.
“Today it’s a duty on every Armenian to join this event for the recognition for the Armenian genocide,” said the leader of the club, Danny Dervishian, whose nickname, “The Godfather,” was stitched on his vest
Lebanese Armenian officials and politicians addressed the crowd.
One official, Annie Yepremian, gave a defiant speech in Armenian remarking on the global nature of the proceedings.
The anniversary was being marked “from Beirut to Paris, from Aleppo to New York, from Tehran to London,” said Yepremian.
A representative of Michel Aoun, the country’s newly appointed president, described the day as both “sad and brilliant.”
“It is sad because of the genocide against an alive, great, free people, the Armenians of Lebanon and the world,” he said.
But it was brilliant because of the achievements of the Lebanese Armenians in the country.
“A salute from the president,” he told the crowd to polite applause.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-lebanon-armenian-genocide-20170424-story.html
France’s Le Pen cancels meeting with Lebanon’s Grand Mufti over headscarf
The National Front (FN) party leader was on a three-day visit to Lebanon to bolster her credentials as a presidential candidate when she walked out of a meeting with one of the country’s foremost religious leaders before it started.
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has cancelled a meeting with Lebanon’s Grand Mufti. The far-right leader refused to wear a headscarf for the tete-a-tete with one of the country’s foremost religious figures.
Shortly after arriving at Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian’s office, an aide tried to give Marine Le Pen a headscarf to put on, which she immediately refused to wear. According to the Associated Press, she was thereupon told that customs were different in Lebanon, prompting Le Pen to walk back to her car and leave.
“You can pass on my respects to the Grand Mufti, but I will not cover myself up,” Le Pen told reporters. She reportedly added that she had met in the past with the grand mufti of Egypt’s Al Azhar, one of the world’s top Sunni clerics, without having to wear a veil.
The press office for the grand mufti meanwhile said that Le Pen’s aides had been informed beforehand of their requirement for her to wear a head covering for the meeting. The statement further remarked that “(t)he mufti’s office regrets this inappropriate behavior in such meetings.”
During her visit to Lebanon, France’s far-right presidential candidate is also scheduled to meet with Lebanese right-wing Christian party leader Samir Geagea and with the Maronite Christian patriarch.
Le Pen’s refusal to wear the head covering is far from unique: Many other female politicians from around the globe including Angela Merkel, Ursula von der Leyen, Hillary Clinton and former US First Ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama all refused to wear veils on diplomatic visits to Saudi Arabia, where every female who lives there is required to have her head and body covered in public.
A group of female Swedish officials came under criticism last week for wearing headscarves during a visit to Iran.
Marine Le Pen Arrives in Lebanon, Will Meet Persecuted Christians
BEIRUT (AP) — The French leader Marine Le Pen has arrived in Beirut to meet with the Lebanese head of state and leading Christian figures.
The National Front leader is hoping to burnish her credentials as a defender of Christians in the Middle East, ahead of France’s April 23 presidential elections.
Le Pen is a leading candidate in the polls. She is running on an anti-immigrant and anti-European Union platform that critics say is a cover for islamophobia and xenophobia.
Her arrival Sunday precedes two days of meetings with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, Christian Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai, and Christian Lebanese politician Samir Geagea.
Lebanon is a former French protectorate. Its Christians have long looked to France for security against the Middle East’s turmoil.
Source: http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/02/19/marion-le-pen-arrives-lebanon-will-meet-persecuted-christians/
Lebanon unveils 30-member government with two Armenians set to take posts
Avetis Kitanyan and Jacques Oghasabian are expected to occupy ministerial posts in the new government.
Lebanon unveils 30-member government with two Armenians set to take posts
Lebanon announced a new government on Saturday with two Armenian ministers set to take posts in the 30-member government headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
According to the report by Hay Dzayn news portal, Avetis Kitanyan and Jacques Oghasabian are expected to occupy ministerial posts in the new government.
In a statement, Prime Minister Hariri, 46, said the government would act to “preserve our country from the negative consequences of the Syrian crisis” as well as formulating a new electoral law, overseeing parliamentary polls.
According to the report, Oghasabian is a close associate to Hariri, while Avetis Kitanyan is representing the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).
The 73rd anniversary of the independence of Lebanon celebrated in Yerevan
The 73rd anniversary of the independence of Lebanon was celebrated at the Marriott Hotel in Yerevan in the presence of Jean Makaron the Ambassador of Lebanon in Armenia as well as nearly 300 guests. Present were Armenian Minister of Regional Governance David Lokyan and the head of the parliamentary bloc of Republicans in the Armenian Parliament, Vahram Baghdassarian. The Lebanese community of Armenia has 800 families, many of whom are well-integrated businessmen, craftsmen and traders.
Krikor Amirzayan
Finally Lebanon parliament elects new president to end lengthy stand-off
Lebanon‘s parliament has elected Michel Aoun as president, ending a political stand-off that has left the post empty for more than two years, BBC News reports.
The Maronite Christian former general secured a majority when MPs met on Monday, October 31 for their 46th attempt to choose a head of state.
Aoun is backed by the powerful Shia Islamist group, Hezbollah.
His candidacy was blocked by the rival, Sunni-dominated Future Movement until a deal was struck earlier this month.
It will reportedly see the Future Movement’s leader, Saad Hariri, become prime minister.
The stalemate has paralysed Lebanon’s government, which is also struggling to deal with deep divisions over the five-year civil war in neighbouring Syria and the arrival of more than one million refugees.
LEBANON: The Bird’s Nest: Site of a Genocide memorial in a seaside resort
There are more than a year, the Board of Directors of the orphanage the Bird’s Nest (Trchnotz Pooyn) announced in an interview with Voice of Van [Voice of Van] that projects move graves a cemetery of orphans had been permanently suspended. In his interview, Khedeshian Seta, president of the Board, said that His Holiness Catholicos Aram Premier had ordered the suspension of the project “to provide a more understandable explanation to the public and to create a calmer atmosphere more conducive to a broader consideration of the matter. “ This last interview was organized following a public protest and an online campaign that criticized the plan to develop a private resort on 2.5 hectares of land leased by the Nest. The campaign developed several justifications for this objection, stressing the need to exhume the remains of Genocide survivors new body and allocation of Nico Hall (a building of 1921) with its church Sainte Gayaneh in a restaurant. (*)
The decision to stop the destruction of the cemetery was important for two reasons.
First, regardless of the controversial nature of the proposed project, the danger of the destruction of graves was pushed back in time. Second, Caholicossat has shown its willingness to consult the public by opening an opportunity for dialogue between the various stakeholders.
Unfortunately, a year later, no effort was made to give an explanation on the decisions taken by the Governing Council, to organize a public meeting so that the project scope is clearly stated, and to hear the professionals were critical to the project. Instead, documents of the resort architecture folder called “The Diplomatic Club” [The Diplomatic Club circulated in public. In addition, a section of the proposed budget was published in an architectural site of the Internet [1].
Although the developers have not obtained the building permit [2] necessary for the progress of the project, they have recently emptied the church of St. Gayane, removing the altar and exposing the shell of the building. Deliberately placing illegally to Lebanese law, developers have started changing the destination of the building, ending its religious dimension and paving the way for future recreation.
In short, the desirable relationship of dialogue and transparency between the Church and the community have not been established. Moreover, efforts to achieve the proposed resort continues – silently. [3]
.
The Bird’s Nest, a testament to survival and humanitarian assistance
The collective Nid D’Oiseau, a group of people working for the conservation of the historic site of the Bird’s Nest, campaigned against the project exclusive resort “The Diplomatic Club”. The site is important for Armenians in general and for the Lebanese, who served as a refuge for survivors of the Armenian Genocide in Lebanon and giving a great example of humanitarian aid. Divert such a place loaded symbol – a tangible testimony Genocide – to turn it into a seaside leisure place would conflict with the history and legacy of the site.
The exhumation and removal of Genocide survivors body are unjustifiable
While in France, the bodies of 130,000 unidentified soldiers dead on the battlefield of Verdun during the First World War individually rest in the ossuary of Douaumont, the Armenian Church is planning to exhume the remains of thirty individual -Three Genocide survivors and move them in a mass grave. Ironically, the idea of mass grave associated with the massacres, a tragedy that thirty-three individuals escaped during the Genocide.
Policymakers need to recognize the 
significance and importance of mass graves, and the reason [4] of their displacement is unjustifiable.
In addition, the online campaign to stop the destruction of the cemetery has collected more than a thousand signatures in only two weeks. In addition, one of the families has officially filed a complaint against moving the remains of their great grandfather of where it finally rests. “What seems to be an insignificant burial is in fact a unique symbol of the vitality of our national memory, which must be kept in its original place and in its original form,” wrote Mr. Garo Armenian in his article “It’s the Orphans’ Cemetery, People!” [Moving! This is the cemetery Orphan]
Contrary to what the Board of Directors, which denies that a church was in the rented area, St. Gayane church served as a unique place of worship for the Armenian Byblos since the 1920s in fact certificates cadastral property report of its official registration as a church. [7] Moreover, Raffi Gergian book of architect and archaeologist, “The Armenian Churches of Lebanon” [The Lebanese Armenian churches], mentions the church Ste Gayaneh as the only Armenian Apostolic Church in Byblos. Built by Armenian orphans Nicol Hall, which today surrounds the St. Gayane church; is the only historic structure that remains today of the complex Bird’s Nest original. “Is there not a moral gap in the fact that it is the Church – an authority that should embody the ideal in that world that decides the conversion of such a place in restaurant” application architect and urban planner Diran Harmandayan.
Armenia, Lebanon ink military cooperation plan for 2016
Armenia and Lebanon signed Friday, November 27, a military cooperation plan for 2016 on the sidelines of an Armenian delegation’s visit to Lebanon on November 25-28.
Chief of the Department of Defense Policy at Armenia’s Defense Ministry, Levon Ayvazyan headed the delegation.
During the visit, Ayvazyan met with a number of top Lebanese officials to discuss the development of cooperation between the Armed Forces of the two countries, also analyzing current situation in the region.