ARMENIAN GENOCIDE,\u00a0LEBANON,\u00a0PROTEST,\u00a0TURKEY<\/p>\n
Armenians marched from Bourj Hammoud to downtown Beirut\u2019s Martyrs\u2019 Square on Wednesday to mark the 98th anniversary of the genocide of their kin by\u00a0Ottoman\u00a0Turks during\u00a0World War I.<\/p>\n
Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during\u00a0World War I\u00a0as theOttoman\u00a0Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by several other countries.<\/p>\n
Turkey argues 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their\u00a0Ottoman\u00a0rulers and sided with invading Russian\u00a0troops.<\/p>\n
Over 20 countries have so far recognized the massacres as genocide.<\/p>\n
The protesters held a rally at the square with speeches made by the leaders of several\u00a0Armenian\u00a0parties.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0families\u00a0of nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped in Syria joined them over what they said was a common cause.<\/p>\n
The relatives of the nine men have been holding daily sit-ins near the\u00a0Turkish Airlines\u00a0offices not far from Martyrs\u2019 Square and have called for boycotting Turkish products.<\/p>\n
They blame the Turkish government for the failure to release the pilgrims who are held hostage by Syrian rebels near the Turkish border in Aleppo district since May 2012.<\/p>\n
Ankara is a staunch supporter of the rebel Free Syrian Army that is fighting regime\u00a0troops.<\/p>\n
On the 98th anniversary of the genocide,\u00a0Armenian\u00a0Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I slammed Turkey for turning churches into mosques.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could Turkey which considers itself a pioneer in coexistence deny the genocide and transform churches into mosques?\u201d he wondered in a statement.<\/p>\n
Turkey should give\u00a0compensations\u00a0to the\u00a0Armenian\u00a0people and restore its rights, he said.<\/p>\n
Naharnet<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE,\u00a0LEBANON,\u00a0PROTEST,\u00a0TURKEY Armenians marched from Bourj Hammoud to downtown Beirut\u2019s Martyrs\u2019 Square on Wednesday to mark the 98th anniversary of the genocide of their kin by\u00a0Ottoman\u00a0Turks during\u00a0World War I. Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed during\u00a0World War I\u00a0as theOttoman\u00a0Empire was falling apart, a claim supported by several other countries. Turkey argues 300,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":52500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,183],"tags":[9721],"class_list":["post-70059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","category-lebanon","tag-armenian-question"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}