Naharnet

Aoun and Geagea Argue on Koura’s Heritage

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun expressed his keenness to the legacy of Lebanese philosopher and diplomat Charles Malek, a day after Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea accused the March 8 majority of seeking to transform the district of Koura where Malek was born into the territory of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“Charles Malek was of course a personality with influence in Koura’s history,” Aoun said. “But history has had different symbols at different stages.”

“No one is keener than us on the heritage of Charles Malek,” he told reporters at his residence in Rabieh following talks with former MP Salim Saadeh.

Geagea told an LF delegation on Thursday that “the Koura of Charles Malek, the only individual in the region who helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, cannot be transformed to the Koura of Bashar Assad, who is slaughtering his own people.”

Geagea was referring to Sunday’s by-elections to fill the Greek Orthodox seat vacated by the death of LF MP Farid Habib.

The March 8 majority is backing Syrian Social National Party candidate Walid al-Azar in the polls that are pitting him against LF candidate Fadi Karam, who has received the strong support of the March 14 opposition alliance.

Several other people have announced their candidacies but the major rivalry is between al-Azar and Karam.


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