Aoun Slams Attempt at 'Hegemony' over Christian Role in State Institutions
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Wednesday warned of a perceived attempt at “hegemony” over the role of Christians in state institutions, as he stressed that “the forces of takfirism and terrorism will not defeat us.”
“We feel that some parties have the same dream that the Ottomans had in the past and this explains the attempt to displace Christians. In Lebanon we're witnessing an inclination towards hegemony in governance and towards weakening Christians and impeding their role,” said Aoun at a rally organized by the FPM, the Tashnag Party and the Syriac League to mark Lebanon's Martyrs Day and the “Centennial of the Genocide of Christians.”
“The welfare that we enjoy will affect everybody and the evil we suffer will affect everybody. We have enough resolve to continue the journey and we promise you that the forces of takfirism and terrorism will not be able to defeat us,” Aoun vowed.
He noted that “the barbarity that we're witnessing today” in the Middle East is “uglier than that of the past.”
“It has invoked the memories of the past and made us worry about the future,” Aoun added.
“The Ottomans are to blame for the genocide after they refused to provide protection for the Christians and took part in the killings,” he said.
“Because people who forget their history are doomed to repeat their mistakes, we won't accept any attempt at obliterating our history and we'll make this anniversary a national day for honoring our martyrs,” he went on to say.
Martyrs Day is a Lebanese and Syrian national holiday commemorating the Syrian and Lebanese nationalists executed in Damascus and Beirut on May 6, 1916 by Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman ruler of Greater Syria.
They were executed in both the Marjeh Square in Damascus and Burj Square in Beirut. Both plazas have since been renamed Martyrs Square.
On April 24, Armenians in Lebanon and around the world marked the centenary of the 1915 massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces.
Turkey, which was born out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, has refused to call the slaughter of Christian Armenians genocide.
Ankara concedes that up to 500,000 people were killed, but says this was mostly due to fighting and starvation during World War I, when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.
Y.R.
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