Beirut - Thousands of Armenians in Lebanon have signed a petition condemning the accord signed over the weekend between Armenia and Turkey, accusing Armenian President Serge Sarkisian of dismissing past suffering caused by Turkey. Some 1.5 million Armenians were killed under the Ottoman Empire during the World War I period in 1915-1918 and a large number of Armenians were dispersed through the world via Syria and Lebanon.
Armenians have charged that the killings constituted genocide, an allegation which Turkey admantly denies.
"There are 5.7 million Armenians living in the diaspora, the massacres were an attempt to wipe out our people. How can we forget that?" said Alice Boghossian, a member an Lebanese-Armenian political party in Lebanon, on Sunday.
She, along with Lebanese-Armenian politician Hagop Pakradounian, opposed the "weak stance made by the Armenian president, and the concessions he gave to Turkey."
There are 150,000 Armenians in Lebanon, around four per cent of the country's population.
The two protocols between Turkey and Armenia were signed Saturday in Switzerland to establish diplomatic relations, open the Turkish- Armenia border closed in 1993, to set up committees to for economic, environmental and other bilateral issues.
The protocols also foresee the establishment of a historical commission to investigate the events during World War I.
