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ETHNIC TENSIONS ERUPT IN BURJ HAMMOUD
The Daily Star, Lebanon
May 20 2014
May 20, 2014 12:18 AM
By Justin Salhani
BEIRUT: The stout, gray-haired man, who says he is "bigger than the
mukhtar" in the community, stares coldly and speaks with authority.
"The Kurds have no religion," Serge says firmly, standing only a
block away from where a Syrian Kurd put a local man in intensive
care Saturday. "They have no Jesus, no God."Serge is one of many in
Beirut's northeastern suburb of Burj Hammoud who harbors a flagrant
resentment toward Kurds. Enmity between some runs so deep that tensions
have even descended into gang warfare in the past.
That sentiment boiled over during the weekend after Lebanese citizen
Elias Kalash was knocked unconscious by a gas canister thrown by a
Syrian Kurdish man.
The ensuing tensions were only quelled Monday when local municipality
figures and representatives comprising various security forces held
a series of meetings aimed at preventing a recurrence of Saturday's
events. A representative from the Kurdish Lebanese Razgari Party
was also in communication with the Burj Hammoud municipality in an
attempt to further defuse ethnic and communal hostilities.
There are no exact figures details on how many Syrian Kurds live
in Burj Hammoud. The relatively cheap housing in this low-income
neighborhood has always attracted people of all nationalities, and has
proved just as popular among Syrian refugees coming to Lebanon over
the last three years. A sizeable Lebanese Kurdish community has been
present in the area since before the start of the Syrian civil war.
Locals claim the incident began when a drunken Syrian Kurdish man
provocatively gawked at someone's fiance Saturday, prompting a group
of Lebanese and Lebanese-Armenians to gather and try to break into
a one-story house the Kurdish man was renting with his father and
four brothers. As the situation escalated, one of the Kurdish men
on the roof picked up a gas canister and threw it at the mob below,
knocking out Kalash.
As of Monday, Kalash was still in intensive care, though his family
said he was rapidly improving. Media reports Monday evening that he
had died of his injuries soon proved to be false.
The Kurdish men are being held in police custody, according to
authorities. Burj Hammoud's Vice Mayor George Krikorian says he is
"unaware" of the arrest of any Lebanese citizen.
Members of the Armenian Tashnag party deployed around Burj Hammoud
over the weekend with instructions to patrol streets but to not
interfere in any fracases.
"As Armenians we don't interfere and we believe problems must be solved
by the municipality and the government institutions," explains Hagop
Havatian, a Tashnag party spokesperson. Although he admits this is not
the first time such problems have arisen in the area, he insists there
is "no such tension" currently prevailing throughout Burj Hammoud.
"The number of foreigners in Lebanon has increased dramatically in
the last few years resulting in severe repercussions on the host
community," Krikorian says. "So frustration is understandable."
Regardless, Krikorian describes Saturday's episode as "an isolated
incident that happens between young men in all neighborhoods in
all regions."
But it is not the first time Burj Hammoud has seen the security
unravel into ethnic violence.
Burj Hammoud resident Panos Aprahamian recalls the last time an
incident in his neighborhood spiraled out of control. "Before the
Syrian war a Lebanese guy was stabbed by a Kurd," he says.
The stabbing led to what Aprahamian describes as "vigilante lynch
mobs" of mostly Lebanese Armenians attacking Kurds and Syrians,
with the Kurdish community gathering in large groups to retaliate.
Aprahamian says smaller incidents are also regular in the neighborhood
and usually occur after locals claim a Kurd has verbally harassed a
local woman. He says a lot of the tension in his neighborhood is based
on xenophobic sentiments among the working class or older generations,
a problem aggravated by a spate of Kurdish-run shops opening in the
area over the last couple years.
Serge exhibits this xenophobia blatantly by likening the Syrian Kurds
in Burj Hammoud to Zionists. "They're buying up all the land like
the Jews did in Israel," he says.
The man says there had been one Kurdish-run store on the street but
it closed Sunday following tensions. He doesn't foresee any more
Kurdish-run businesses opening in the area.
"No more Kurds can come here," he says. "It's forbidden."
The only Kurds remaining on that street are a couple of women living
in an apartment with a baby. Both refused to speak to media. According
to Serge, they were not involved in the weekend's events.
While Lebanese Kurdish figures are adamant that their full support
is behind state institutions, a sense of persecution and defiance
lingers in the community.
"There are groups of people who want to remove other groups from
certain areas and this is shameful," says Mahmoud Sadr Fatah Ahmad,
president of the Kurdish Lebanese Razgari Party.
"Kurds are defending themselves in Lebanon and wherever else they
are present."
"Kurds fear nobody but their God," he adds.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/May-20/257075-ethnic-tensions-erupt-in-burj-hammoud.ashx#axzz32Hzd5800
The Daily Star, Lebanon
May 20 2014
May 20, 2014 12:18 AM
By Justin Salhani
BEIRUT: The stout, gray-haired man, who says he is "bigger than the
mukhtar" in the community, stares coldly and speaks with authority.
"The Kurds have no religion," Serge says firmly, standing only a
block away from where a Syrian Kurd put a local man in intensive
care Saturday. "They have no Jesus, no God."Serge is one of many in
Beirut's northeastern suburb of Burj Hammoud who harbors a flagrant
resentment toward Kurds. Enmity between some runs so deep that tensions
have even descended into gang warfare in the past.
That sentiment boiled over during the weekend after Lebanese citizen
Elias Kalash was knocked unconscious by a gas canister thrown by a
Syrian Kurdish man.
The ensuing tensions were only quelled Monday when local municipality
figures and representatives comprising various security forces held
a series of meetings aimed at preventing a recurrence of Saturday's
events. A representative from the Kurdish Lebanese Razgari Party
was also in communication with the Burj Hammoud municipality in an
attempt to further defuse ethnic and communal hostilities.
There are no exact figures details on how many Syrian Kurds live
in Burj Hammoud. The relatively cheap housing in this low-income
neighborhood has always attracted people of all nationalities, and has
proved just as popular among Syrian refugees coming to Lebanon over
the last three years. A sizeable Lebanese Kurdish community has been
present in the area since before the start of the Syrian civil war.
Locals claim the incident began when a drunken Syrian Kurdish man
provocatively gawked at someone's fiance Saturday, prompting a group
of Lebanese and Lebanese-Armenians to gather and try to break into
a one-story house the Kurdish man was renting with his father and
four brothers. As the situation escalated, one of the Kurdish men
on the roof picked up a gas canister and threw it at the mob below,
knocking out Kalash.
As of Monday, Kalash was still in intensive care, though his family
said he was rapidly improving. Media reports Monday evening that he
had died of his injuries soon proved to be false.
The Kurdish men are being held in police custody, according to
authorities. Burj Hammoud's Vice Mayor George Krikorian says he is
"unaware" of the arrest of any Lebanese citizen.
Members of the Armenian Tashnag party deployed around Burj Hammoud
over the weekend with instructions to patrol streets but to not
interfere in any fracases.
"As Armenians we don't interfere and we believe problems must be solved
by the municipality and the government institutions," explains Hagop
Havatian, a Tashnag party spokesperson. Although he admits this is not
the first time such problems have arisen in the area, he insists there
is "no such tension" currently prevailing throughout Burj Hammoud.
"The number of foreigners in Lebanon has increased dramatically in
the last few years resulting in severe repercussions on the host
community," Krikorian says. "So frustration is understandable."
Regardless, Krikorian describes Saturday's episode as "an isolated
incident that happens between young men in all neighborhoods in
all regions."
But it is not the first time Burj Hammoud has seen the security
unravel into ethnic violence.
Burj Hammoud resident Panos Aprahamian recalls the last time an
incident in his neighborhood spiraled out of control. "Before the
Syrian war a Lebanese guy was stabbed by a Kurd," he says.
The stabbing led to what Aprahamian describes as "vigilante lynch
mobs" of mostly Lebanese Armenians attacking Kurds and Syrians,
with the Kurdish community gathering in large groups to retaliate.
Aprahamian says smaller incidents are also regular in the neighborhood
and usually occur after locals claim a Kurd has verbally harassed a
local woman. He says a lot of the tension in his neighborhood is based
on xenophobic sentiments among the working class or older generations,
a problem aggravated by a spate of Kurdish-run shops opening in the
area over the last couple years.
Serge exhibits this xenophobia blatantly by likening the Syrian Kurds
in Burj Hammoud to Zionists. "They're buying up all the land like
the Jews did in Israel," he says.
The man says there had been one Kurdish-run store on the street but
it closed Sunday following tensions. He doesn't foresee any more
Kurdish-run businesses opening in the area.
"No more Kurds can come here," he says. "It's forbidden."
The only Kurds remaining on that street are a couple of women living
in an apartment with a baby. Both refused to speak to media. According
to Serge, they were not involved in the weekend's events.
While Lebanese Kurdish figures are adamant that their full support
is behind state institutions, a sense of persecution and defiance
lingers in the community.
"There are groups of people who want to remove other groups from
certain areas and this is shameful," says Mahmoud Sadr Fatah Ahmad,
president of the Kurdish Lebanese Razgari Party.
"Kurds are defending themselves in Lebanon and wherever else they
are present."
"Kurds fear nobody but their God," he adds.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/May-20/257075-ethnic-tensions-erupt-in-burj-hammoud.ashx#axzz32Hzd5800