Lebanon Archives

Assyrian refugees begin streaming into Lebanon

March 3, 2015 By administrator

Assyrian refugees begin streaming into Lebanon

BEIRUT: More than a dozen Assyrian Christians fleeing an onslaught by ISIS in northeastern Syria have entered Lebanon since Monday night, a General Security official told The Daily Star.

Gen. Nabil Hannoun Tuesday also refuted allegations that the fleeing families had been blocked or prevented from crossing into Lebanon.

“There is the regular routine administrative procedures which they have to follow in order to enter Lebanon, but no blocking,” Hannoun said.

He said no Assyrian was stranded on the border Tuesday and that many have been allowed into the country Monday night.

Hannoun did not give a figure for how many Assyrians have crossed into Lebanon, but the state-run National News Agency said Tuesday that 17 entered last night.

Earlier Tuesday, security sources told The Daily Star that 23 Assyrian refugees fleeing the violence in Syria’s province of Hassakeh were waiting at the Masnaa’ crossing on Lebanon’s eastern border, to be given permission to enter the country.

The sources said a Lebanese Assyrian cleric has contacted General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, asking for his assistance in facilitating their entry. Hannoun could not verify those details, but denied that Lebanese authorities were denying entry to Assyrians refugees.

Lebanese officials have generally welcomed calls to allow Assyrians to enter Lebanon from Syria despite a months-old ban on accepting new refugees.

Free Patriotic Movement chief and MP Michel Aoun called on the Lebanese authorities to facilitate the entry of Assyrian Christians in a news conference Tuesday, warning that Christians are being systematically uprooted from the region.

“I implore the world’s conscience to help resolve the conflict which is threatening the existence of Christians,” Aoun said.

“We do not want [Christians] to take refuge in Europe or anywhere else… It is a felony to treat in that way the people who have lived in the Levant (for centuries). Today there is a systematic uprooting of Christians from the Orient,” he added.

Aoun, who made the comments after a meeting with a delegation of Christian Maronite archbishops, said a special committee will be set up to provide assistance to the displaced Assyrian families and facilitate their residence in Lebanon.

He urged the Lebanese administration to facilitate entry and residence paperwork, rather than blocking the fleeing families.

“History witnessed many instances of eradication of Christians (in the Levant) and today the tragedy is recurring through displacement,” Aoun added.

Around 220 Assyrians were abducted from their homes when ISIS militants seized 11 villages in the Hassakeh province in northeastern Syria two weeks ago. Thousands more have fled their homes to avoid capture.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 29 of the kidnapped were released, while others are to be tried by ISIS’ Sharia court.

– See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2015/Mar-03/289422-aoun-urges-lebanon-to-facilitate-assyrian-entry.ashx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=Newsletter#sthash.ZxM3vHjh.dpuf

Wife and child of Islamic State leader Baghdadi arrested in Lebanon

December 2, 2014 By administrator

The Lebanese army detained a wife and daughter of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State (Isis), as they crossed from Syria nine days ago, security officials have said.

The woman was identified as Saja al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi, by a Lebanese security official and a senior political source.

The Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported she had been detained in coordination with “foreign intelligence”.

The arrest is a blow to Baghdadi and could be used as a bargaining chip against his group, which has captured many foreign, Iraqi and Syrian prisoners and declared a caliphate in territory it has seized in Syria and Iraq.

A senior Lebanese security official said Baghdadi’s wife had been travelling with one of their daughters, contradicting earlier reports that it was his son. DNA tests were conducted to verify it was Baghdadi’s child, the official said.

They were detained in northern Lebanon. Investigators were questioning her at the Lebanese defence ministry. There was no immediate reaction from Islamic State websites.

Dulaimi was one of 150 women released from a Syrian government jail in March as part of a prisoner swap that led to the release of 13 nuns taken captive by al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria, according to media reports at the time.

A source with contacts with Iraqi intelligence said the captured woman was an Iraqi wife of Baghdadi’s, but could not confirm the name. There was cooperation between Iraqi and Lebanese authorities leading up to her capture, the source said.

Baghdadi has three wives, two Iraqis and one Syrian, according to tribal sources in Iraq.

Islamic State has seized wide areas of Iraq and Syria, Lebanon’s neighbour to the east.

The Lebanese security forces have cracked down on the group’s sympathisers and the intelligence services have been extra vigilant on the borders with Syria.

Over the past few months they have arrested dozens of militants suspected of staging attacks to expand Isis influence in Lebanon.

A US-led alliance is seeking to roll back Isis’s territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. Barack Obama has vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” Baghdadi’s group, which is seeking to reshape the Middle East according to its radical vision of Islam.

Spillover from the Syrian conflict has repeatedly jolted neighbouring Lebanon. Militants affiliated to the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and Islamic State are demanding the release of Islamists held by the Lebanese authorities in exchange for 27 members of the Lebanese security forces taken captive in August.

Isis includes thousands of foreign fighters and its leadership draws from militants with combat experience in Iraq.

The United States is offering $10 million for information leading to the location, arrest, or conviction of Baghdadi, an Iraqi.

Baghdadi called for attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia in a speech purported to be in his name last month.

He said his self-declared caliphate was expanding in Saudi Arabia and four other Arab countries and called for “volcanoes of jihad” the world over in the speech released on 13 November.

First Armenian peacekeeping mission arrives in Lebanon

November 27, 2014 By administrator

The Daily Star

BEIRUT: The first Armenian peacekeeping contingent has arrived in Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL mission along the southern region bordering Israel.

The Armenian Embassy in Lebanon told The Daily Star that the 32-strong contingent departed Wednesday night from Armenia and that the unit was the first to serve in Lebanon.

While Armenia has been part of several U.N. peacekeeping forces since 2004, the country has long opposed sending troops to Lebanon, over concerns for the large Armenian community in Lebanon.

The issue was broached during Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Lebanon in 2012, and Armenia has had an observer in UNIFIL in preparation for the contingent’s arrival.

According to Arka News Agency, the Armenian Parliament ratified a technical agreement of cooperation signed by the Italian and Armenian Defense ministries that would allow Armenia to contribute troops to the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, deployed as per U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

The agency said the Armenian peacekeepers would be deployed in three southern villages, rotated every six months. The contingent would be “ensuring respect for the safety of the U.N. staff,” Arka reported.

There are approximately 100,000 Armenians in Lebanon, concentrated mainly in the capital’s suburbs.

Armenia to deploy peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon in Oct

September 22, 2014 By administrator

Armenia will deploy a contingent in Lebanon under the Italian command within the framework of the UN peacekeeping mission, President Serzh Sargsyan told the Italian daily Corrierre della Serra, Public Radio of Armenia website reported.

Armenia, along with the international community, is highly concerned with the developments in the Middle East, the President said. “There are large and vibrant Armenian communities in Iraq and Syria, who have lived there for years in harmony with Muslims. We are now witnessing gradual annihilation of the Christian cultural heritage in those regions.

The Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) destroyed the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Deir ez-Zor, Syria.

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian issued a statement condemning the destruction of the church, which housed the remains of victims of the Armenian Genocide, calling it a “horrible barbarity.”

Nalbandian called upon the international community to cut the Islamic State’s sources of supply, support, and financing, and eradicate what it referred to as a disease that “threatened civilized mankind.”

Public Radio of Armenia. Serzh Sargsyan: The right to self-determination a fundamental principle for us

Lebanon a safe haven but Middle Eastern Christians still at risk

August 15, 2014 By administrator

Jean Aziz is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s

The expulsion of Christians from cities in northwestern Iraq at the hands of Islamic State (IS) militants is still resonating and felt throughout Lebanon for different reasons. The first is that Lebanon comprises the largest number of Christians compared to other countries in the Levant. Second, Christians assume leadership positions in Lebanon, allowing them to raise issues, take a stance and make demands, a luxury that Christians in neighboring countries do not enjoy.

In addition, the churches concerned with the tragedy of Christians in Mosul and the Ninevah Plains — such as the Chaldean, Assyrian and Syriac churches — are currently all located in Lebanon in terms of religious headquarters, followers and religious officials. The presence in their homeland has become very limited and mostly silent. For these reasons, a meeting was held on Aug. 7 at the summer headquarters of the Maronite Patriarchate in Diman, a village in the north of Lebanon, which was attended by all the Levantine patriarchs.

The meeting raised three issues: the developments in Gaza; the battles in Lebanon’s Arsal between the Lebanese army and the armed Sunni fundamentalists; and the tragedy of Christian displacement from Mosul and the Ninevah Plains. Sources who participated in the meeting told Al-Monitor that the first two issues took no more than a few minutes. The articles related to them were already prepared for the draft statement that was issued after the meeting.

The discussions were, however, focused on the Iraqi incidents. The same sources said, “The interjections of religious officials stressed to identify the parties responsible for the tragedy that has befallen the Christians of Iraq since 2003.”

The participants were clear in blaming it on the repercussions of the US occupation, and the current violent and extreme inclinations characterizing political Islam. The finger was also pointed at Iraq’s neighboring countries, some of which are involved while others are accused of ignoring the situation. Some countries are also trying to achieve political gains at the expense of the tragedy taking place.

The sources said the participants expressed “strong dissatisfaction toward the Western silence and the inability of the international community to stop the crimes against humanity that are committed freely and with impunity.”

Subsequently, religious officials accused some Western countries of plotting against the Christians of the Levant, while drawing on old but well-known theories. These theories link to many factors such as the influence Israel has over some Western countries, and the potential Israeli interest in establishing pure sectarian entities. This comes in addition to Western interests to court oil-rich Islamic states, despite the latter’s discrimination against Christians living in their countries, which creates a model for extremist movements to follow. Although religious officials had different opinions about this theory, they all agreed on refusing the French stance that seemed to lure Mosul’s Christians into leaving their homeland. The officials considered the French position as a blow to the Levantine Christian stance.

For his part, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Lebanon, Bishop Michel Kassarji, informed Al-Monitor about the steps that can be adopted to help with the tragedy in Mosul and Ninevah. He said, “During the meeting, the heads of the churches have discussed all the possible methods to help. … A preliminary idea was adopted, stipulating that patriarchs visit Baghdad as soon as possible, within a week maybe, to discuss with the Iraqi government the situation of Christians in Iraq. The high-ranking delegation may also visit Erbil for the same purpose.”

He added, “The patriarchs know that the fate of Christians in Iraq, or those who remained out of the 1.5 million Christians, relies on the stance of different countries around the world. This is why they are thinking of visiting all these countries, from Tehran, Riyadh and Ankara, to Western countries.” Some proposed staging protests in front of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris against the demolition of Iraqi archaeological sites that are on the World Heritage List, to incite the international public opinion to try and save buildings in case it would be impossible for human lives to be spared. Moreover, the cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lebanon will continue in regard to its announced plan to follow up on the issue.

On the humanitarian level, the deputy patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church, Bishop Youhana Jihad Battah, told Al-Monitor, “The humanitarian tragedy of the displaced exacerbates by the day, especially after IS militants reached the heart of the Ninevah Plains and occupied the Christian villages there, including Qaraqosh.”

He said, “The displaced did not have identity cards or passports, as IS forced them to leave empty-handed, or else they would have left Iraq. This, however, compelled them to stay and move to the Christian villages of the Ninevah Plains, the mountains of Dahuk and the Christian-dominated suburb of Ankawa, adjacent to Erbil.”

In the same context, Kassarji said, “Approximately a hundred Christian families from Mosul that were able to reach Beirut recounted the tragic situation. Their situation is dire and the only place they could resort to was the headquarters of the Chaldean Patriarchate near Beirut.”

Religious officials are incessantly talking about the latest developments in the plight of Christians in Islamic countries. They are torn between the silent knowledge that this will not be the last chapter and that Islamic fundamentalism will root Christians out of the Levant, and the deep faith that the Holy Spirit, who protected Christians for 2,000 years amid heinous horrors, will keep them in the region for longer. Which of these will prove to be right? The answer might come sooner than expected.

Jean Aziz

Columnist

Jean Aziz is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Lebanon Pulse. He is a columnist at the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar and the host of a weekly political talk show on OTV, a Lebanese TV station. He also teaches communications at the American University of Technology and the Université Saint-Esprit De Kaslik in Lebanon.

LEBANON A common memory is possible between Armenia and Turkey?

May 24, 2014 By administrator

An international symposium was held at the Saint-Joseph University at the initiative of the Boghossian Foundation entitled “Rebuilding the memorial dialogue: Example Turkish-Armenian.”

Heavy Turkish-Armenian dispute was the subject of an international symposium was organized by the Boghossian Foundation and St. Joseph’s University. It was held at Campus Social Sciences Huvelin Street, in the presence of the Catholicos of the Armenian-Catholic Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX, the Vice-President of the USJ Michael Scheuer and many personalities, as well as a passionate about the issue public. A dozen speakers from Europe, Lebanon and Turkey have raised questions about the possibility of a dialogue between Armenia and Turkey share a memory and a reconstructive approach to turn the page black a crime still alive.

For Armenians, any reconciliation process begins with the recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey. This is not the case now before a policy of denial confirmed by a social and even political amnesia. “The Turkish community lives trauma of the loss of the Ottoman Empire,” said Ahmet Insel, a lecturer at Paris I. The Turks live nostalgia of politico-religious and social system of millets where the Muslim millet was higher than the other . This nostalgia is not conceived until today a tie between a Christian and a Muslim, between a Jew and an Orthodox, etc.. Why the company has struggled to live the very notion of difference and its aspiration to homogeneity is very strong. This obsession is the basis of a violence that could explode at any time. In this sense, the speaker Ahmet Insel said that this violence is linked to a fear and a kind of repression of the story based on several denials: What ethnic cleansing suffered Armenians in Anatolia, seizure of their property, massacres Greek Orthodox, etc..

Change factors Michel Marian, of Esprit presented the developments of the Armenian problem. These steps forward are beginning to develop in the early twenty-first century, when Turkey seeks to open up the European Union. We are witnessing the end of “Armenian taboo” in Turkey by its obligation to comply with the standards for human rights in the European Union. International recognition of the genocide is obtained by entering the history books.

In 2014, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his condolences to the grandchildren of the Armenians, the eve of April 24, considered the anniversary of the start of the Armenian tragedy. But “this statement also refers to a shared grief and describes the end of the Ottoman Empire as a difficult period for millions of Ottoman citizens, Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian and other, whatever their religion or ethnic origin “says Christine Babikian Assaf, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, USJ.

Evolution takes place on the Armenian side that manifested by the decision to open borders with Turkey and the Armenian National Unity to honor the victims of genocide and to demand recognition by Turkey. Ms. Babikian has compiled a chronology of this union that began in 1945 when the diaspora raised his claims for the first time in a letter to the UN to put pressure on Turkey through international bodies. Armenians have expanded their scope from the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the genocide in 1965, with the founding of the Defence Committee of the Armenian cause. And since the birth of the Armenian state in 1991, successive Armenian presidents have continued in the same direction and have placed this issue high on the agenda of foreign policy.

Reconciliation is possible? Henry Laurens, historian and expert in the Near and Middle East, noted the importance of the reconstruction of a historical relationship by showing the limits of the work of a historian. Mr. Insel emphasized the importance of redefining the Turkish citizen identity. This problem is all the communities that make up present-day Turkey, the Kurdish community who claims to be recognized in its identity. This new definition should allow recognition of all identities which make up society today Turkey: Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, Jewish, Muslim and Arab …

On the other hand, it is time the designer responsible for the massacre. “We must learn to nationals of Turkey that the responsibility for genocide is not that of the company,” says Ahmet Insel. Responsibility is that of state officials who were directly involved. The corporation is guilty of having attended but did not complete the crime. And today as these crimes are no longer alive and can not be judged in court, he should at least do not consider them as heroes, and renaming schools and streets that bear their names.

The international media have contributed to highlight the Armenian cause, but it is time that the work done in the company of today’s Turkey. Guillaume Perrier wants, through his book Turkey and the Armenian ghost, translated and published recently in Turkey, the Turks learn their history. It confirms that everyone is responsible for the oversight and policy that currently, more and more Turkish citizens demand the truth.

Can one ever forgive? Ahmet Insel, the question is not one of forgiveness, although it is necessary to live together, but the recognition of facts; forgiveness is individual, some do, some do not, it is the consciousness of each and everyone to do, but the recognition is collective.

François Dermange, ordinary ethics professor at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Geneva, stresses that reconciliation is not done by legal means and memorial, but forgiveness must have a religious source. “Only forgiveness can meet the impossible,” he says with emphasis on the fact that this is a personal opinion.

L’Orient-Le Jour

Saudi Arabia bribes Lebanese politicians: Lahoud (Video)

May 3, 2014 By administrator

PressTV Lebanon’s former president, Emile Lahoud, says Saudi Arabia has been exerting its influence in Lebanon’s politics by bribing politicians over long years, Press TV reports.

Lahoud said in an interview with Press TV that many Lebanese politicians switch sides because they have pledged allegiance to foreign countries.

He said after he was appointed as Lebanon’s commander in chief, the then president of the republic and chief of intelligence approached him with “a suitcase full of USD 100” bills.

They “said this is half a million dollars that we give every month to the commander in chief who goes along our policy,” Lahoud added.

“I said why don’t you give it to the government and the government gives it to the army. He said no…. He said this has been done since 1982,” the veteran politician further noted.

“I said who is doing that. He said Sheikh Rafei and that he brings them from Saudi Arabia,” he added.

Lahoud stressed that Lebanon must have strong resistance backed by its national army to overcome problems.

The country needs to replace its sectarian-based electoral law with a national law to get rid of foreign-backed politicians, he added.

People in Lebanon have staged several demonstrations to slam what they called the divisive role of Saudi Arabia in the region.

Protesters accuse Riyadh of fueling unrest and sectarianism in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. They say the Al Saud regime has been using its petrodollars to finance al-Qaeda-linked and Takfiri groups with the sole aim of destabilizing the region.

Huge deadly car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon (Video)

August 15, 2013 By administrator

A car bomb explosion has killed at least 20 people in Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to the Lebanese Interior Ministry.
The explosion struck near a complex used by Hezbollah, the Shia political party and armed group that in recent months has become increasingly and more publicly involved in the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

At least 200 people were injured in the blast, which occurred between the Bir el-Abed and Roueiss neighbourhoods on Thursday.

The blast put buildings and cars on fire and sent a column of black smoke over the densely populated area.

Hezbollah’s television channel showed firemen helping residents trapped in their homes escape the flames, as well as a crowd of people in panic and rage, gathered near the site of the explosion.

“Terrorism has struck the southern suburbs again,” said Al-Manar’s television presenter, adding that Hezbollah was “paying the price for its position”.