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Armenians and the Lebanese Civil War of 1958
Abstract
The Armenian community in Lebanon has become known since the outbreak of the second Lebanese civil war in 1975 with its determination to stay out of any armed conflict among the various political factions and ethno-religious communities in the country. Few people outside the community itself do still remember that the Armenians were deeply divided during the earlier, 1958 Civil War in Lebanon and that over 30 Armenian youth were killed in tit-for-tat assassinations by rival factions in the community during those few months. This paper will outline the causes behind these bloody incidents in 1958, summarize what happened among the Armenians in Lebanon between May and December 1958, and then try to explain why Armenians in Lebanon eventually came to prefer the suppression of any serious, public discussion of these killings. In this last section of the presentation, the author will analyze the various private responses he received from different sections of the Armenian public after he had published a rare newspaper article in the summer of 2008, commemorating the 50th anniversary of these events.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Lebanon
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries