050310 - Armenian Community of Libanon Exclusive : Jean Eckian

Armenian Community of Libanon Exclusive : Jean Eckian
Analyzes current position to Lebanon.

Mr. Meguerditch L Bouldoukian (1), architect and one of the community artistic Armenian leaders to Lebanon, does analyzes situation of his country.

Jean Eckian : Mr. Bouldoukian You could give us your feeling on the current situation and on the state of mind of the Armenian community of Lebanon.

M.L Bouldoukian : I thank you for your inquiry about the Armenian Community feelings during the present difficult period in the history of Lebanon. I shall try to answer to your simple question, with an elaborate personal analysis and assessment of the present situation in Lebanon and its future prospects.

Since a month, the world has been watching Lebanon through its red and white striped flags, by the hundreds of thousands, trying to blow the winds of change. Although we are in an unstable equilibrium, wavering between high hopes and hidden dangers, several facts are worth focusing on:

1. For the first time since decades, Lebanese flag has become the symbol of unity among all parties with diverging political views and expectations.

2. For the first time since decades, all Lebanese citizens are in favor of the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon, aspiring to freedom from all present and future dominations

3. For the first time since decades, the driving force of the political and popular schism is not religious, it is rather national. Both loyalist and opposition leadership and their popular base include members from all religious families in Lebanon. The cross and the icons of Christian saints seen at the tomb of the late President Hariri, is more than a symbol. It is a qualitative leap towards, nationhood.

4. Daily peaceful gatherings of tens of thousand, occasionally reaching several hundred thousands, are an expression of a new nationalism after years of sectarian fatalism. Proportionally to the number of population in France, it would be an impossible dream to watch a dense mass of 12 million peaceful demonstrators at the Place Concorde and its side streets.

5. All parties are well aware that democracy, independence, national sovereignty and freedom were and continue to be approximations of an ideal concept. Global history is the chronology of the big fish swallowing the small ones in an unending "queue de poisson". In spite of hard fact of the historic dominance of real politic, the dream of socio-political idealism remains a human goal to achieve.

Accordingly, several common denominators act as unifying factors, at a national level.

As for the Armenian Community in Lebanon, as an integral part of the Lebanese mosaic, we share the same values of independence and sovereignty of Lebanon, well integrated into its natural geo-political surrounding and aspiring to the realization of eternal wishes of human development in a safe environment aiming at happiness of the individual and the multititude.

As for the political representatives of the Armenian Community in Lebanon, they are faithfully and actively present among the loyalists and the opposition groups, similar to all other Community representatives.

After years of stagnation, as Lebanese citizens with our Armenian cultural identity, we strongly believe in a prosperous Lebanon and living alongside with other Lebanese communities with their own shades of historical identities.

Meguerditch L. Bouldoukian

Meguerditch Bouldoukian
(1) Meguerditch L. Bouldoukian was born in 1938 to Beirut. Architect and owner of the Garden Tower Hotel (Antelias), he conceived and rehabilitated many structures and private property. To Beirut, M.L Bouldoukian animates an artistic circle of painters and sculptors of the Armenian community. One can communicate with them, all the Mondays, on {www.gardentowerhotel.com/MondayForum.htm} To 7:30 pm, local hour.
Exclusive and free copyright from Jean Eckian (Paris, France) to your country
thank-you to warn to the publishing

V.V