Lebanese Armenian Community Armenian Troops Protect Lebanese Civil War

Three weeks ago, I interviewed to Lebanese Armenians who participated in defending the Lebanese Armenian Community during the Lebanese War

This is a follow up to an article I wrote on www.aravot.am

«Եկանք Հայաստան եւ այլեւս չկարողացանք հեռանալ Հայաստանից»

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ https://www.aravot.am/2022/06/18/1274914/

© 1998 - 2022 Առավոտ – Լուրեր Հայաստանից

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I met with two Lebanese Armenians, who had participated in defending the Lebanese Armenian community during the Lebanese War,

The meeting brought several surprises

First I contacted Mr. Vazken Sisslian, who is well known for his reputation and had a rich military history as both a Lebanese Armenian who participated in protecting and safeguarding the Lebanese Armenian community and also by participating in Artsakh war, defending the Armenian Lands

I know Mr. Vazken due to our mutual political ideological identity, I am a supporter of the Social Democrat Hunchaki Party - Armenian Democratic Patriotic Socialists, and he is a veteran respected well known rank member of the Hunchakians,and he participated in Nagorno Karabagh war as part of Hunchak Legions

I also contacted another Lebanese Armenian residing in Yerevan and he is also part of HMM Yerevan, he told me his father also took part in this duty, Avedis Kazandjian, who is known by the name Anto

My joy was doubled when I called his father and he told me he is a very old friend of Vazken, and that they both took part as comrades in Arms in this mission

Finally we met, in an evening that turned intense, emotional, full of surprises, Anto in particular had a huge part in making the night electrifying, he knew how to tell a story, while Vazken Sisslian is all that he is, a firm tough military leader, straight to the point

When I saw Anto, I told him his face seems familiar, he laughed,

Vazken began the story, he stated that Armenian political parties had taken a decision not to be part of the Lebanese War, they had chosen the policy that they declared: “Positive Neutrality”

As Vazken explained, Armenians only participated in military activities of defensive targets and nature, Armenians were surrounded by two hostile forces, the Palestinians from one end and the Lebanese Christians, 20 meters separated Burj Hammoud, the mostly Armenian populated area, from each side, as both sides aimed to advance on their rival position from Burj Hammoud, Armenian fighters prevented both sides from advancing through Burj Hammoud, thus creating a safe zone

What makes this story special is Armenian cooperation, Vazken the hunchakian partisan too part in defending Burj Hammoud, where the leading dominating force is the Armenian Revolutionary Fdearation (Tasnaktsutyun), Hampig Kazezian – Anto’s son, who organized the whole thing, also tells me later how the Hunchakain fighters arrived from the Rawda area to defend Burj Hammoud whe it was under attack

After 2 years of Armenians standing their ground and holding their positions, preventing Palestinians from breaching it, Anto, in an electrifying poetic intense style of storytelling, tells me how Armenians took the decisive decision to push forward the Palestinians away from Burj Hammoud, in crucial advancing attacks

At the same time, Vazken moves also to Hadjen, to aid the Social Democrat Hunchak party troops to push away Palestinians away from Hadjen, during the karantina battles between the Phalange and the Palestinians

In 1979 the Armenians also face the battles with the Lebanese Christian refugees who fled from the Lebanese Southern city of Dammour

In 1980, the Christain forces launched a full scale attack on Bourj Hammoud, they were advanced with the heaviest weapons, almost an army, yet Armenians who only had light to below middleweight weapons managed to resist, and after 8 days of attampts, the attacks failed to break Armenian positions

Anto Kazezian tells how Armenians demonstrated unity, how the Hunchakian fighters from nearby Rawda area reached Burj Hammoud to assist the defending Armenian troops

In 1980 Vazken was injured due to a rocket who fell nearby from The Christian area of Ashrafiet, when he was recovering, Anto brought it a strange guest, he told Vazken, this is an Armenian from the USA, he came to assist us, talk with this guy, he is quite an enjoyable person to have a conversation with, Vazken and this guy start to sense chemistry very fast, Vazken looks at this strange modest humble person in rather simple cloths, he asks him for his passport, it was written Montgomery Melkonionan – Monmte Melkonian

They conclude, how they came to Armenia and became mesmerized with the country, they came for a few days but were bedazzled and amazed by it’s glamour and beauty, and never left

In the end, I once again told Anto, My friend, I cannot get rid of this feeling, I know you, he smiled, he said, Bediiiik Listen, Listen, Listen and he kept repeating Bedik, beeedik, then it came to me, Man, Anto, is this you, I cried, he laughed, I knew him from our neighborhood church since I was 14 years old, until the mid-2000’s, then we had never met, until some two decades later, here we were, thanks to Aravot (Aravot,am) who had asked me for such an interview, and destiny had once again brought us together, two Lebanese Armenians met once again, In Gomitas Yerevan Great republic of Armenia

Peter Manoukian

Lebanon Lebanese Armenian Troops Civil War